The Daily Mail has posted an interactive mapping facility showing the distribution of the first, second and third most common surnames in England, Scotland and Wales from 2007 electoral rolls.
Macdonald and Campbell hold sway in western Scotland with Graham and Scott through Cumberland and down to north central England.
Take some time to look at a part of the country of interest to you in detail, and the second and third most common surnames. There's also a facility for looking at names on Twitter which I haven't had time to investigate.
1 comment:
Blacksmith,silversmiths,goldsmith - etc. occupational names proliferate. My birth surname Webb, also occupational name. Webb/Webbe/Weaver etc. "son" also from Viking/Anglo-Saxon genealogy. A direct grandfather in my line was Thompson. A great grandfather was Campbell (and probably not closely related to the Dukes of Argyll, and hopefully not, present at the Massacre of Glencoe. :D )
Only so much can be deduced from charts showing present family name presence in England. All populations have constantly been on the move forever. We can only begin with tracing backward - my Webb was (census 1951, and his son's 1850 original birth certificate) was officially 26 in 1851, b. Gloucestershire,(so, c. 1825, give or take?) gardener/labourer, registered in Peckham, Kent, 1851. One registered (household) child - who went to Russia c. 1870s so disappears from later census info.
Also, no middle names on record...
JFM
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