Map of Surnames in Europe

#1

Post by Nitrolo » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:39 AM UTC

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#2

Post by tompagenet2 » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:46 AM UTC

Is this normalised at all? It always seems to look like a map of where cities are, although there are some interesting trends, especially if you pick surnames that have more recently become prevalent in a country.

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#3

Post by karlerss » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:46 AM UTC

Basically just population maps - https://xkcd.com/1138/

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#4

Post by elaus » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:49 AM UTC

Very interesting, especially for less popular or more regional names.

Would love to know more about how it's done: What is the source of those mapping between names and geo locations? Public phone books to get the address and then some reverse geo-coding?

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#5

Post by wiz21c » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:49 AM UTC

How did they geolocate the surnames ? Mine is pretty unique in my country and it's located in the town where I live. Where did they got this information from ?

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#6

Post by gitowiec » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:52 AM UTC

elaus wrote: post #4

Very interesting, especially for less popular or more regional names. Would love to know more about how it's done: What is the source of those mapping between names and geo locations? Public phone books to get the address and then some reverse geo-coding?

Exactly! How come it knows where I live?

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#7

Post by kuboble » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:55 AM UTC

karlerss wrote: post #3

Basically just population maps - https://xkcd.com/1138/

Not at all. For example here is a picture comparing mine and my wife's surnames. https://i.gyazo.com/f67aae30e098a5f9d1e13fdf58f638e4.png

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#8

Post by DaedPsyker » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:56 AM UTC

karlerss wrote: post #3

Basically just population maps - https://xkcd.com/1138/

In my case not, I have a pretty rare last name. The map does show it's heavily regional with just a few scatterings elsewhere.

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#9

Post by Someone » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:56 AM UTC

wiz21c wrote: post #5

How did they geolocate the surnames ? Mine is pretty unique in my country and it's located in the town where I live. Where did they got this information from ?

They say it’s from old phone books (https://www.surnamemap.eu/belgium/info.php. Seems to be the same for other countries)

Re: Map of Surnames in Europe

#10

Post by wink » Thu, Mar 03, 2022, 11:57 AM UTC

karlerss wrote: post #3

Basically just population maps - https://xkcd.com/1138/

For (very) common names, yes. Checked mine and a few other rare ones on the German map and it 100% matches the few people I know of, or the region where they hail from.