Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-10-09
AN ASSORTMENT OF sURNAMEs.
From Ghambers's Journal

rum CndnOcfss journal 4
Family nomenclature is a subject of con.
siderable interest beyond the sphere of the
etymologist and sntiquary, of whose learned
laoors, however, We wish to speak with the
greatest respect. Whence existing surnames
have been derived, and the changes thew have
undergone, are points in the Illustration of
which much pains and patience have been ex
Penaed- 10 use comparison well understood
In these days OF mechanics and engineering. a
broad highway has been carried through the
midst ot this special question but we prefer
Just now turning aside into a bypath opened
up by the registrar-general of England in his
last annual report. That communicative func-
tonary deyotes a whole chapter to this topic
and as probably not one in a thousand of our
countrymen will ever see the original, we pro-
pose to present, in a simpli6ed and reclassiied
form, the curiosities of fact which he has placed
at our disposal. We are first of all informed
that IN the department over which he presides
there Is registration Of 2l 090 900 names, ali
collected between the LIST Of July, 1887, and
tne enc Oh 1894. From the registration in
dexes thus possessed, the surnames at present
borne In England and Wales could be pretty
accurately ascertained; but the troubie in
volved IN such an inquiry is sufficient 10 appal
the Samson Of statistics himself, who has lin
tied his researches to two quarterly indexes
one OF births, and another Of deaths-resultine
IN the discovery, that of 275, ,4O5 individual
registered, 32,S1S had different surname.-
showing an average Of persons to eysry
surname. Ii is then assumed as a rougb
estimate, that the whole number of surname,
IN England and Wales is between 81, 900 and
10000, photographed differences (as Clerk.
Clark, Clerke) being allowed to pass for a diff
terence OF name. The roots of surnames now
In use would be found to fall considerably short
OF the above number. Wales and Cornwall
differ from England in the constantly reeur-
ring sameness of the nomenclature; in the
former, nine-tenths of the people, it is said.
could perhaps be mustered under less than
100 different surnames;n so that 1.-The pri-
mary object Of a name, which is to distinguish
an Individual from the mass, is in danger of
being lost"
By the aid Of a table compiled from s.nine
quarterly indexes of births, eight of deaths.
and eight OF marriages." we are enabled to
see what the fifty most common surnames are.
and the number Of times each surname occurs
The Smiths, OF course, are at the head of the
poll, their name boasting 1857 entries; but
their supremacy is imperiled by the tribe of
Joneses, who stand 3, ,34l strong That of
Williams numbers q, ,936. Below % oOO are
arrayed the clans Taylor, Davies, Brown.
Thomas, Evans, Roberts, and johnson. The
others have fewer than 10000 followers, the
lowest figure falling to Grifi tbs, ,639. these
nlty names embrace nearly eighteen in every
lOe OF those registered-about one in six: and
as the total entries Of the fifty are 4i0 eli the
nine indexes may be considered to contain
about Z, SOC, 900 entries-certainly a fair num-
Der from which to Judge
"A second table deals with the same fifty sur
names with reference to their origin and fur
nishes the number Of entries in the FOLLOWING
order