sources

There is no single organisation that encompasses the many diverse aspects of surname studies, but the following are the main sources:-

SOCIETIES and Periodicals

Guild of One-Name Studies
An international guild that supports those who are collecting the worldwide occurrences of a surname. Most of the surnames registered with the Guild tend to be medium or low frequency surnames. The Guild publishes the excellent 'Journal of One-Name Studies' which now includes articles of a broader appeal. Members also have access to an electronic forum .

Society for Name Studies in Great Britain and Ireland
The emphasis is on place-name study, though personal names are also included. SNSBI publishes the annual journal 'Nomina' and holds a stimulating annual conference. Most of the leading names in the academic study of British surnames belong. So if you want to mingle with the best...
Membership details on the Society's website

American Name Society
The American Name Society's journal is called 'Names', and does have articles that touch on aspects of British surnames.
It also produces an online report each December which outlines ongoing research in the field of name study.

The International Council of Onomastic Sciences
" ICOS ...is the international organization of all scholars who have a special interest in the study of names (place names, personal names, and other proper names). "
ICOS publishes a journal - 'Onoma'
A conference is held three years - the last one being ICOS XXI -Uppsala -2002. The latest printed proceedings are for ICOS XIX -Aberdeen- 1996. This is a 3 volume set - Isbn 1902355008 available via the British Library

The University of Nottingham, Institute of Name Studies
The newly named Institute has developed a Postgraduate Certificate in Name-Studies (Distance Learning) with the University of Sheffield.To commence January 2005. For details

The following periodicals have all published articles that touch on aspects of comparative surname studies.
Fuller details in the bibliography section

After the census, the next major source for distribution, is the seventeenth century hearth-tax. Keep up to date with developments in completing the publication of all remaining county volumes at the Centre for Hearth Tax Research

The ability to determine correct historical boundaries is naturally of importance to plotting distributions. Historical British boundaries have been transferred into digital format by the GB Historical GIS Project. The data is at present only available to academics, but a CD-Rom version of Parish boundaries was published in 2001 by the History Data Service. Brett Langston's Registration Districts in England and Wales is excellent for determining the parish coverage of registration districts. (Though the serious amateur may still need to consult the authoritative Frederick Youngs' 2 print volumes on Administrative Districts.....)

One-Name Studies are obviously of direct relevance. Many members of the Guild of One-Name Studies have released data on the distribution/incidence of their registered names on their websites

For software that you can buy which has in-built plotted registration district boundaries for 1881 (England and Wales only), I would recommend version 2. of Stephen Archer's Genmap Uk .. But if you wish to plot distribution just by an 1881 county, Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake has digitised some 1881 parishes for a few counties as part of his MACH software

An exciting development is the possibility of the use of genetic fingerprinting to establish whether bearers of a surname do share a common ancestor. The starting point to keep in touch with this exciting work is Chris Pomeroy's excellent and comprehensive website which keeps track of developments.

Bibliography

This selective bibliography is based upon extracts from the three standard bibliographies on naming:-

Elsdon Smith Personal Names: a bibliography Detroit: Gale, 1965

Edwin Lawson Personal Names and Naming Greenwood Press, 1987

Edwin Lawson More Names and Naming Greenwood Press, 1996
Where available, I have included either Lawson's or Smith's shortened comments on the scope of a work. On the shoulders of Professor Lawson's and Smith's monumental work, I have added a few later references which do not yet appear in any standard bibliographies
If you are interested in furthering an interest in personal names, I would urge you to seek out these excellent bibliographies. They are comprehensive in their coverage of English-language material on the subject.
Professor Lawson has gracefully allowed me to reproduce many of his citations and comments

Royal Historical Society 's online bibliography