Fun new page to check British surnames

[TheBaldyMan]

University College London (UCL) has a new site at their Spatial Literacy unit that allows you to find the geographic distribution for a given surname in Britain using the censuses of 1881 and 1984.

The link is at the bottom of this post.

For instance my surname is traditionally Scottish

1881 map:

1984 map:

the website for the map generator is at the link below:
UCL Spacial Literacy unit

[CanuckAmok]

1. My "most" is in the bloody fuckin' Hebridies.

Ugh. Thank god we all hate eachother. No chance of a family reunion... The last thing I need is to be sacrificed inside a giant man frame.

[TheBaldyMan]

3. thats the Shetland Isles

Up Hellya is cool midwinter festival that they just had, torchlight parades and lots of Whisky.

[CanuckAmok]

5. still too bloody cold and wet.

Stupid family.

[GirlinContempt]

18. Mine doesn't even exist anymore

:(

[CanuckAmok]

30. Contempt? Really?

Hmmm...

[GirlinContempt]

31. That says contempt?

Fuck no wonder the boys from Compton never take me seriously.

[XemaSab]

2. Cool stuff!!!! 1881 census for my name:

[bridgit]

4. only registry is in 1881, but where is this place...

:shrug:

[TheBaldyMan]

6. looks like S.Lancashire/S.Yorkshire / Derbyshire / Nottinghamshire to me

Industrial Midlands in England

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. Looks like it to me. And into Leicecestershire and Rutland.

[bridgit]

21. hm; thanks, ya'learn something every day...

:hi:

[Ilsa]

7. Neat. Couldn't find my maiden name, but found

my husband's in Wales and southern GB.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Let's see if I can do this correctly.

Maiden name 1881



Maiden name 1998



Married name 1881



Married name 1998



I love stuff like this. Very cool! Highland girl meets East Anglian boy. Falls madly in love and creates three beautiful boys.

[TheBaldyMan]

9. judging by this thread 25% of world is chinese the rest are scottish!

[Pacifist Patriot]

11. LOL! We like big families.

[Pooka Fey]

34. You got that right!

1881 Map:



The Scottish Borderlands, baby!!!! That's "Braveheart" country!
<snip>
By the time Hadrian became Emperor in 117 AD the Roman Empire had ceased to expand. Hadrian was concerned to consolidate his boundaries. He visited Britain in 122 AD, and ordered a wall to be built between the Solway Firth in the West and the River Tyne in the east "to separate Romans from Barbarians".
http://www.aboutscotland.com/hadrian/
<snip>
The western edge of that wall is the place from which one-fourth of my family heritage comes - so you know that I'm one PISSED OFF American democrat.

[redsoxliberal]

12. it's funny... I am from darn sarf in Lahndan, but it comes up as scottish

bloody picts stole my name! :D

Anyhow, half London, half merseyside.

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. I'm apparently from the midlands

Probably a legacy of millworkers.

1884:


1998:


This is cool. :bounce:

[redsoxliberal]

15. allo then, ow's birmingham then?

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Ar, smoky

Ond rather sooty, as well.

[hickman1937]

14. Wow. My last name is mostly found in Liverpool and Kentucky.

How strange.

[redsoxliberal]

16. you should be proud

We are the champions of Europe, ya know!

[hickman1937]

22. Which begs the question, redsoxliberal,

who is "we"? As a long time Tiger fan I know it can't be the Red Sox.:P

[redsoxliberal]

28. LIVERPOOL FC

The greatest club in all of Europe! :D

[Der Blaue Engel]

17. In 1881, my mother's family was almost exclusively in Bristol

Only 7 of us per million.

Very interesting.

[xmas74]

19. Looking into family history they believe that my

mother's maiden name is Scottish but the only map(the 1881) shows this:



There were none listed for 1998 and no other statistics worldwide for the name.

[MrScorpio]

23. Mine's is Yorkshire

This is very ironic to me

[Huckebein the Raven]

24. Mine name is not on the list but

there is a surname on the list that is one letter off from my name. That surname is Celtic in origin.

:shrug:

[TheBaldyMan]

25. it's quite common for surnames to vary slightly along with literacy levels

in 1881 the literacy rate in Britain was high compared to most countries but not 100% and some folks were more literate than others. Chances are it's the same family but the spelling morphed for some reason.

[Huckebein the Raven]

26. I see. Thanks for the info

:thumbsup:

[Skittles]

27. 1881 map of my mum's maiden name

yup, that's where she is from:

[GrpCaptMandrake]

29. This is what makes DU so cool!

So many people sharing so much fun stuff.

My people are right where we left 'em when we split, right there in Glasgow, and apparently breeding like bunnies.

[Spider Jerusalem]

32. Interesting...

My 8th great-grandfather was from Warwickshire, left for the colonies nearly 350 years ago (he was a Puritan, and something tells me the Restoration had something to do with the timing)...and it appears that the greatest frequency of my surname in the UK is still in the same area.



and 1998:

[patsimae]

33. So Interesting...

Typed in my aunt's married name. She lives in Suffolk but she's an Irishwoman.

In 1880's everybody concentrated in one Southeast county and a little beyond. A hundred years later, you can see where they migrated.

I find this stuff so fascinating. National Geographic has a project going, where for 99.00, you can swab the inside of your cheek, and they will analyze your DNA, and from that analysis they can tell you which area of the world your ancestors migrated from. Of course this is thousands and thousands of years ago, not just a hundred or so. It's on my long list of things I need to do.

[Ouabache]

35. wow, what can anyone make of this

this is the 1881 which is way after my ancestors left and made it to Ohio, actually.



prior to giving me the map it said the name was celtic and irish


now on edit I find this:

that it is celtic and scots, so why are they all in the South?
and this info which I know nothing about these places, gives me something to Google I guess.

Great Britain top area (1881) Bournemouth
Great Britain top area (1998) Chester
Great Britain top area index * 463
Great Britain top postal town Wareham

And as far as social status my ancestor's surname is only outranked by 11% of the names in Britain, I'll have you know. Has anyone done it for the blivet*?

[TheBaldyMan]

36. takes deep breath ...

SE starts at Devonshire, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Hertfordshre and Buckinghamshire and a bit of Sussex as well. With pockets on the Wirral and Norfolk.

Just say you're a West Country Boy.

[Ouabache]

37. Thanks for the info

baldy.


-West Country Boy :-)

[TheBaldyMan]

38. could be classified because family tradition favours certain names

i.e. first names coming from a particular ethnic group. The UCL site had this to say about classification of names that may be outside the expected geographical range

Names which are Celtic in terms of language structure or can be inferred as being Celtic from their first names but which do not fit into any of the Celtic categories will be categorised as ‘Irish – Other’, ‘Scottish – Other’ and so on.

Perhaps your ancestors were very regional and were displaced, like St. Kilda evacuation in the 20s?