Popularity of Surnames Globally

Sons carry the family name through generation after generation. Daughters, if they marry a man, take on their husbands' surname. With this principle, I can say that the growth of a surname in popularity depends on how many males are born into the family. Those with the most males in the family will have a more common surname and those that do not have many males in the family will not grow as quickly.

I wondered this process of inheriting surnames happened all over the globe and if the surnames were in any way related. This is what I found:

Country:	Most Common Surname:
Argentina	Fernandez
Barbados	Alleyne
China	Lǐ (李)
Croatia	Horvat
Denmark	Jensen
Equatorial Guinea	Nquema
Finland	Virtanen
India	Devi
Ireland	Murphy
Madagascar	Rakotomalala
Russia	Ivanova
Tanzania	Juma

Also during my investigation, I discovered that some countries have completely different systems than the one I’m used to. For example in Egypt, the typical name is {your name} {your father’s name} {your father’s father’s name}. In this scenario, my name would be Henry Peter Colin and my mother’s name would be Mary Ciarán (Kieran) Pádraig (Patrick). In some Indonesian countries, people tend not to have any form of surname at all. 

The Popularity of Names Over Time

As I noticed that my grandparents and all of their friends’ names are quite different to my and my siblings’ names, I thought it would be interesting to look into the most popular names over time. To find out whether or not this change just happens in the society that I live or if it happens in various other countries, I thought I’d investigate and this is what I found:

	France 1910 (f)	France 2010 (f)	France 1910 (m)	France 2010 (m)
1	Marie	Emma	Jean	Nathan
2	Jeanne	Léa	André	Lucas
3	Marguerite	Chloé	Louis	Enzo
4	Madeleine	Manon	Pierre	Léo
5	Germaine	Inès	Marcel	Louis
6	Yvonne	Lola	Henri	Hugo
7	Suzanne	Jade	René	Gabriel
8	Louise	Camille	Joseph	Ethan
9	Marcelle	Sarah	Georges	Mathis
10	Lucienne	Louise	Maurice	Jules

	Spain 1910 (f)	Spain 2010 (f)	Spain 1910 (m)	Spain 2010 (m)
1	María	Sofía	Juan	Santiago
2	Carmen	Valentina	Antonio	Sebastián
3	Josefa	Isabella	Manuel	Matías
4	Dolores	Camila	Francisco	Nicolás
5	Francisca	Valeria	José	Samuel
6	Antonia	Mariana	Pedro	Alejandro
7	María-Carmen	Gabriela	Miguel	Mateo
8	Isabel	Sara	Luis	Diego
9	Pilar	Daniela	Ramón	Benjamín
10	Concepción	María-José	Ángel	Daniel

	USA 1910 (f)	USA 2010 (f)	USA 1910 (m)	USA 2010 (m)
1	Mary	Sophia	John	Aiden
2	Helen	Isabella	James	Jacob
3	Margaret	Olivia	William	Jackson
4	Dorothy	Emma	Robert	Ethan
5	Ruth	Chloe	George	Jayden
6	Anna	Ava	Joseph	Noah
7	Elizabeth	Lily	Charles	Logan
8	Mildred	Madison	Frank	Caden
9	Marie	Addison	Edward	Lucas
10	Alice	Abigail	Henry	Liam

At first, I saw that the name “Mary” and its variations were the most popular female names of those born in 1910 from these countries. I believe that this was because of the influence of Christianity in these countries. When I made this observation, I compared it to the males’ names. The equivalents of “John” in these countries seemed to also be very popular. This intrigued me because I found that the most popular names were Christian, I guess this proves how important people felt that their religious beliefs were.

However, if we compare 1910 to 2010, we see that the most popular names in each of the different countries are not variations of each other. By this, I mean they’re not Michel (FR), Miguel (SP) and Michael (US). Instead, they are diverse and there isn’t any visible connection or link. The only reason that I can think of to explain this result is that people are perhaps not as traditional as they used to be and have learnt to be more accepting of change. 

The Popularity of Names

Names, just like clothes, go in and out of fashion every few years or so. In various places around the world, what may be seen as a good name may not be seen as a good name somewhere else. This is due to the multicultural world we live in today.

Time is also a large factor too. Names which were once popular a few decades ago may not be as popular anymore. The media influences people immensely too when we are choosing names. Many people choose a name after a celebrity, fictional character, idol or public figure.

The last influence, that I'm going to mention is religion. In countries where Christianity is the main religion, names with Christian roots will be more popular than those with Hindu or Islamic roots.

Also, tradition plays a part when choosing names. If a certain name has been passed down through the generations in your family, you may want to give your child that name or maybe even yourself.

Anybody (or thing) can be given any name. If it's what you like, I'm sure you could change and choose a name that is of your personal preference. This is usually the main reason for choosing names.