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Guild of One-Name Studies

One-name studies, Genealogy

Is your surname here?

    • 2,377 members
    • 2,236 studies
    • 7,920 surnames

Modern British Surnames

The Modern British Surnames part of the Guild of One-Name Studies’ website is dedicated to the memory of the late Philip Dance who created Modern British Surnames: a resource guide and was an enthusiastic proponent of the study of the distribution, incidence and statistical analysis of the surnames of Britain. Philip’s research also includes extensive content on countries throughout the world, for example in the Bibliography section.

The Guild aims to conserve and develop the content of Phil’s former website, surnamestudies.org.uk, and to continue the journey which he mapped out. As he wrote on the opening page of his resource guide:

“Modern British Surnames is devoted to the resources available for the study of the distribution, incidence and statistical analysis of the surnames of Britain, mainly post-1837, and primarily as a mass phenomenon.”

“Sorry, but you will NOT find here information on the history or etymology of an individual surname.”

Guide to the main sections of Modern British Surnames:

About

Philip Dance’s foreword, introduction to the subject, other general information about his research and a contact page.

Distribution

Tools for mapping the distribution of surnames.

Variance

Why surnames have died out. Why and how the spelling and pronunciation of names have changed.

Statistics

Raw data to help you ‘normalise’ any figures that you derive from collecting numbers from a national source (or if not, then suggestions where to find this information). The frequency of individual surnames. Why are there so many surnames? Surname statistics at a local level; official statistics; a new and embryonic section on the statistics and distribution of UK forenames, probably post 1540; Considering high-frequency names as a class on their own (leading names).

Bibliography

Lists of societies and periodicals, subject bibliographies, and web site links.

Teaching

Teaching materials about names with a world-wide perspective. What is the oldest thing that you possess? Probably your surname? This section attempts to encourage study at a younger age and actually is rapidly becoming a mini-sample of the whole site. Recommended start here.

Taxonomy

Towards a structure for the subject of personal names. For an advanced background of what has been achieved so far, and what remains to be done, then read Silvio Brendler’s paper, “Is there a place for an English Surnames society?”

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Modern British Surnames

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  • Modern British Surnames
    • About the research
    • Distribution
    • Variance
    • Statistics
    • Bibliography
    • Teaching
    • Taxonomy

Other Guild Websites

You may find our other Guild websites of interest:

  • Members’ Websites Program
  • Surname Cloud
  • Guild Members’ records on FamilySearch
  • Guild Marriage Locator

Contact Us

Email: Guild General Contact
Postal address:
c/o Secretary
Edendale, 113 Stomp Road
Burnham, Berkshire, SL1 7NN, U.K
Call us free on:
UK: 0800 011 2182
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Australia: 1800 305 184

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