Introduction

1) This is an exciting time in surname studies. Up to now the emphasis has been on studying the etymology and origin of single names. Research has centred on the earliest, or fairly early forms of by-names and later hereditary surnames. Names have been studied in the context of the documentation where they are listed. Language skills have been paramount, with an increasing awareness of the importance of the socio-economic background in early name-studies. This approach is exemplified by the volumes in the English Surname Series.

1a) George Redmonds and David Hey have moved the emphasis on to the importance of the distribution of a surname, and tracking a name back via genealogical methods, to its earliest form. Use has been made of datasets where there is acceptable coverage geographically and of population. Particular emphasis has been placed on the Hearth Tax, and of Victorian death registrations. They argue that many of the names studied by the ESS have died out. Even if they did survive, they have become transmuted, such that no connection has yet been made with the earlier form. The use of such methods has modified or invalidated many of the definitions in current dictionaries of British surnames.

2) A recent novel approach has been to study the frequency distributions of surnames and given names in modern datasets such as the late Victorian censuses, telephone directories, and electoral rolls. Ken Tucker is a leading exponent of this type of analysis, allied to the mathematical study of surnames – extinctions, birth-death models – to replicate the actual surname frequencies of individual nations.

3) The above mirrors the earlier use of such datasets to study national isonymic rates. Malcolm Smith (Durham) has made innovatory use by applying the technique of isonymy to the social sciences.

4) Surnames are being used as surrogates for migration, and for the identification of historical cultural regions, an up-and-coming-area involving the determination and plotting of surname densities.

5a) The geography of surnames is being used to determine modern socio-economic areas. University College London Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) has been the prime mover behind the Spatial Literacy web site [link no longer available].

5b) Names are being used as a measure of ethnic residential segregation, and as health markers for ethnic populations. Again CASA is leading the way in the UK, through its GeoNom (Geographic & Ethnic Origin of Names) Project [link no longer available].

The problem is that the study of surnames has cut across so many disciplines that it has ended up been treated as the poor relation of all. It is rather looked down upon academically which is a shame because, taken as a whole, the area is rewarding. There is much work for amateurs and academics to pursue in collaboration.

Perhaps all this will lead one to consider ‘surnames’ in the context of ‘proper names’.

Questions

• What is a ‘name’? (There is actually no straight-forward definition.)
• Does a ‘name’ have inherent meaning or is it just a label? (Enter the world of the philosophy of identification.)
• In what part of the brain are ‘names’ processed? (Is it a different region to that of common nouns?)