A world where everyone is Mr or Mrs Smith?

Skeeter

Skeeter

Skeeter

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Random though I had, could the world, in theory, end up with everyone having the same surname?

Names are quite fixed in a lot of countries now, rather than the more fluid naming of cultures past. And certainly in nations like the UK we consume surnames, rather than generate them. When people get married the woman tends to take the mans name, and if there are no male children in a family the name could die out. Yet we don't produce any new surnames to replace them.

In theory in a closed system you could end up with everyone having the same surname.

But could that happen in the world? Are there more cultures that produce surnames than consume them? And would we ever get to the stage where one name over rules all others?

Personally I think you would get a smaller range of surnames with enough population each to never be wiped out.

Random though, I know, I was stuck in traffic :)
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
People double barrel and don't change, or name the kids after the father but don't get married.
So no, it won't and can't happen, Skeeter son of Scooter.
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I know, different cultures or practices do things differently. But are they the majority or the minority?
 
Men sometimes take the women' name. I nearly did that because my wife has an extensive publication record which she didn't want to loose reference to when estimating IF scores etc. However, I am the last in the line of my surname so I kept mine and my wife double barreled her name.


Surnames can be made as well, my grandparents changed their surname in the 2nd world war, picking a place off a map.
 
D.P. said:
Men sometimes take the women' name. I nearly did that because my wife has an extensive publication record which she didn't want to loose reference to when estimating IF scores etc. However, I am the last in the line of my surname so I kept mine and my wife double barreled her name.


Surnames can be made as well, my grandparents changed their surname in the 2nd world war, picking a place off a map.
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Why didn't she just keep her name as well :confused:
 
I wonder if the rate of retention or creation is greater or less than the rate of consumption?

E.g. for every person which keeps their name or creates a new one, do 10 other others give theirs up? I am coming from a very UK style mentality so genuinely dont know what other cultures may do? Is it Skandanavia where people are named after their father? E.g. Skeeterson?
 
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Mongolias a bit of a mess, when everyone was asked to pick a Surname they all chose.... Khan... after Genghis Khan.
 
I suppose China is quite a good example, there are a lot of different one, but there are also millions of Chans. I imagine the quantity of different names doesn't dwindle, probably enlarges, but at the same time the common ones become more common.

Get some census info from today and 100 years ago to compare the variance.
 
Skeeter said:
Census information isn't released into the public domain until 100 years after its taken, is it?
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Not personal information but I think anaoymised data is released. It's certainly fiddled about with by the gov's Stats department to release key figures.

I think they could release a list of surnames, it's not like you can't get a list of peoples' names off the electoral role anyway.

edit: somebody already did my idea http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...t-200-000-surnames-extinct-England-Wales.html
 
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Well, there are supposedly only 2000ish surnames over here anyway, and 25% of them are Chen, Lin or Huang. I'm taking my partner's surname for my Chinese documentation, and she's using mine for the English side, so technically we're having two each. We're just greedy :p
 
I don't think you could ever end up with just 1 surname, I would expect you would end up with a few that just end up remaining reasonably stable in numbers, so for every Mr Smith the marries Ms Jones, a Mr Jones would marry Ms Smith and keep the numbers reasonably level. Though I suspect the equilibrium would be achieved with more than just Smith and Jones.

pitchfork said:
Is that like wrestle mania?
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Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?! Well it definately isn't pork :D
 
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