Statistics

"Monsieur Dupont s’appêlle Martin et son prénom est Jean." Economie et Statistiques, no. 35 (1972): 49-53.
Notes: A study of the number and distribution of patronyms and forenames in France

Allar, R. "Nombre et disparition des noms de famille en France." La France Genealogique 162.

Bardsley, Alan. "How big will your one-name study be?" Journal of One-Name Studies 7, no. 10 (April-June 2002): 14.

Bardsley, Alan. "How many Smiths are there?" Journal of One-Name Studies 5, no. 10 (April 1996): 308-10.

Baumler, G. "Differential frequencies of the surnames Smith (Schmied) or Tailor (Schneider) in German Top Athletes of Different Track-and-Field Events : a Contribution to Human Population Genetics." Psychologische Beitrage 26, no. 4(1984): 552-60.

Buechley, Robert. "A reproducible method of counting persons of Spanish surnames." Journal of the American Statistical Association , no. 56(1961): 88-97.
Abstract: Lawson2

Cazes, Marie-Helene. "Assessing the genealogical depth of an ancestry."
Abstract: "Many studies in genetics and historical demography rely on family reconstitution, beginning with one individual and his or her ancestry… In this paper it is shown that an index which is supposed to provide information about the average length of an ancestry may lead to inconsistent results in some cases"

Chakraborty, Ranajit and others. "Distribution of last names : a stochastic model for likelihood determination in record linkage." IN: Genealogical Demography, Editors Bennett Dyke and Warren T. Morrill, 63-69. New York: Academic Press, 1981.
Notes: Abstract in American Journal of Physical Anthropology 1979 No 50 p426-427
Abstract: Lawson1: "Develops a statistical model for the distribution of surnames from records in Laredo, Texas and Guam from 1829-1977. 10 refs."

Consul, P. C. "Evolution of surnames." International Statistical Review 59, no. 3 (1991): 271-78.
Abstract: "The determination of a suitable probability model to describe the distribution of surnames in various areas has been considered by many authors. In this paper a birth and death process model and a branching process model are proposed to explain the evolution of surnames."

Dale, J.W. and Roberts, J.L.  "The identification of patients and their records in a hospital"  IN:  Computers in the Service of Medicine Vol 1 (Editors: G McLachlan and R.A. Shegog), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968
Abstract: An analysis of surname lengths from some 4,500 names from a patient file. This showed a mean of 6.38 and a standard deviation of 1.64

Dewdney, A. K. "Computer recreations : Branching phylogenies of the Paleozoic and the fortunes of English family names." Scientific American (May 1986): 16-18.
Notes: Discusses Sturges and Haggett

Eliassaf, Nissim. "Names survey in the population administration : State of Israel." Names , no. 29 (1981): 273-84.
Abstract: Lawson1: "Analysis of the name records of over 4 million individuals in Israel. Statistical tables show distributions of first names and surnames by number of letters and frequency. Also includes the 100 most frequent names in various categories. Arab names are also included."

Fidler, Graham. "How big is your One-Name study?" Journal of One-Name Studies 5, no. 9 (January 1996): 278-80.

Gray, Percy G. "Initial letters of surnames " Applied Statistics  7(1), (March 1958): 58-59
Abstract: An analysis of the 1957-58 parliamentary electoral roll. For England, the most common initial letter was ‘B’ (11%), for Wales ‘J’ (11%), and in Scotland ‘M’ accounted for 21% of its surnames.

Hatch, Donald. "Do many of us really have rare surnames or do we just think we do?"  Journal of One-Name Studies 8(9) (Jan-March 2005),9-13, 17
Abstract: an examination of the frequency of singly-occurring surnames in the 1881 and 1901 censi. Concludes that only 8% of us have a “very rare” name and less than 1% have an “extremely rare” or unique name – though 1 in 3 may be classed as “quite rare”
Response: Ben Kaser: Letter Journal of One-Name Studies 8 (10) (April-June 2005), 25 [combined table]

Healy, M.J.R. "The lengths of surnames"  Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General) 131(4) (1968), 567-568
Abstract: An analysis of some 2871 entries from a then contemporary edition of the London Telephone Directory. The mean of distribution was 6.47 with a standard deviation of 1.79

Kendall, David G. "The genealogy of genealogy branching processes before (and after) 1873." Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society 7 (1975): 225-53.

Kent, Alan. "Probability and statistics in genealogy -1." Genealogists’ Magazine 18, no. 2(June 1975): 76-80.

________. "Probability and statistics in genealogy -2." Genealogists’ Magazine 18, no. 3(September 1975): 134-39.
Notes: see also response pp211-213

Manrubia, Susanna and Damian Zanette "At the boundary between biological and cultural evolution: The origin of surname distributions" Journal of Theoretical Biology Vol 216 pp461-477 (2002)
Abstract: "The authors’ model for international surname distribution found that the rules are surprisingly simple. Just two key parameters—how often new surnames are created and the rate at which uncommon name disappear—largely govern the distribution of surnames everywhere. After several generations names follow a power law, you end up with a few very common names and lots of very rare ones."

Manrubia, Susanna, Bernard Derrida and Damian Zanette "Genealogy in the era of genomics "American Scientist Vol 91 pp158-165
Abstract: "Models of cultural and family traits reveal human homogeneity and stand conventional beliefs about ancestry on their head"

Mase, S. "Approximations to the birthday problem with unequal occurrence probabilities and their application to the surname problem in Japan. "Annals Of The Institute Of Statistical Mathematics 44, no. 3(1992): 479-99.
Abstract: "Finally we will give two applications. The first is the estimation of the coincidence probability of surnames in Japan. For this purpose, we will fit a generalized zeta distribution to a frequency data of surnames in Japan

Mateos, Pablo   "How segregated are name origins? : a new method of measuring ethnic residential segregation” by Pablo Mateos, Richard Webber, and Paul Longley
Notes: a paper presented to GIS Research UK 2006 Annual Conference

Miyazima S and others. "Power-law distribution of family names in Japanese societies." Physica A 278, no. 1-2(April 2000): 282-88.
Abstract: "We study the frequency distribution of family names. From a common data base, we count the number of people who share the same family name. This is the size of the family. We find that (i) the total number of different family names in a society scales as a power law of the population, (ii) the total number of family names of the same size decreases as the size increases with a power law and (iii) the relation between size and rank of a family name also shows a power law. These scaling properties are found to be consistent for five different regional communities in Japan.

Molet, Martine and Christine Ricci. "Prénoms et noms des Bourguignons." Dimensions [Insee-Bourgogne], no. 46 (1997).
Notes: available online link to website

Murrells, Donovan J. "How many alive today?" Journal of One-Name Studies 5, no. 12(October 1996): 377-78.

Ogden, Trevor. "How rare are surnames ?" Journal of One-Name Studies (April 1998): 129-23.

Panaretos, J. "On the evolution of surnames." International Statistical Review 57, no. 2 (1989): 161-67.

________. "A probability model involving the use of the zero-truncated Yule distribution for analyzing surname data." IMA Journal of Mathematics Applied in Medecine and Biology 6, no. 2(1989): 133-36.

Plakans, Andrejs "Genealogies as evidence in historical kinship studies : a German example", in: R.M. Taylor and R.S. Crandall (eds.) Generations and Change : Genealogical perspectives in social history Macon,Georgia, 1986 pp133-137
Notes: In this study nearly half of the patrilineages lasted less than a year; however, more than 50% of the marriages occurred in only 9% of the lineages

Randerson, James " No shame in a name " New Scientist Vol. 173, Issue 2335, (25 June 2002)
Abstract: Preview of Manrumbia & Zanetti’s 2002 Journal of Theoretical Biology article

Reed, William J. and Barry Hughes "On the distribution of family names" Physica A 319 (2003): 579-590
Abstract: A model for the distribution of family names that explains the power-law decay of the probability distribution for the number of people with a given family name

Social Security Administration. Report of the distribution of surnames in the Social Security Number File. Washington, D.C.: Social Security Administration, 1974.
Abstract: Lawson1: "Used over 239 million records to identify those surnames with a frequency of 10,000 or more. A second listing is given in alphabetical order."

Tesniere, M. "Frequence des noms de famille." Journal De La Societé De Statistique De Paris 116, no. 1 (1975): 24-33.

Tucker, Ken  "An analysis of the forenames and surnames of England and Wales listed in the UK 1881 census data " Onoma 38(2003): 181-216.

Tucker, Ken  "Distribution of forenames, surnames, and forename-surname pairs in Canada." Names 50, no. 2(2002): 105-32.

________.  "Distribution of forenames, surnames, and forename-surname pairs in the United States." Names 49, no. 2(2001): 69-96.

________. "The forenames and surnames from the GB 1998 Electoral Roll compared with those from the UK 1881 Census" Nomina 27 (2004): 5-40

________.  " What happened to the UK 1881 Census surnames by 1997 " Nomina 27 (2004): 91-118

Vivian, S. P. "Some statistical aspects of genealogy (I)." Genealogists’ Magazine 6 (1932): 442-51.

Weiss, Kenneth M.,Rossman, David L., Chakraborty, Ranajit and Norton, Susan L. "Wherefore art thou Romeo? Name frequency patterns and their use in automated genealogy assembly"in: Genealogical Demography edited by Bennett Dyke and Warren T. Morrill. New York, 1980, pp 41-61.
Notes: "a characteristic feature of these distributions is that the total number of forenames or surnames appearing once exceeds what would be expected on the basis of standard statistical distributions"

Zanette, Damian and Susanna C. Manrubia. "Vertical transmission of culture and the distribution of family names." Physica A 295, no. 1-2(June 2001): 1-8.
Abstract: "A stochastic model for the evolution of a growing population is proposed, in order to explain empirical power-law distributions in the frequency of family names as a function of the family size "