The Student Room Group

How posh is your surname?

http://www.spatial-literacy.org/UCLnames/default.aspx

An interesting little tool. Click 'Start a surname search' in the top right. Once you have the results, go to 'Geographical location' and look under social demographics. You should see a percentage of people with posher names:

27% of people have a more high status name than me. Oh dear, I'm allegedly quite posh then. 43% have a more rural name.

Category of surname English - Locational Name; Generic Feature; Other
Mosaic type with highest index # Bungalow Retirement
Index of top Mosaic type * 138
% of people with a more rural name 43
% of people with a more high-status name 27
Cultural, Ethnic, Linguistic categories of surname British


Anyone who is interested in the Mosaic patterns: http://www.business-strategies.co.uk/upload/downloads/mosaic/mosaic%20uk%20groups%20and%20types.pdf

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

There were no results found for your selection. There needed to be at least 100 people with the name on the Electoral Register in 1998 to be in the database. We are hoping to add these missing names at a later date.


what do i win?

Reply 2

That suggests that your family is either incredibly posh or very small and insignificant lol. Or more likely, judging by the flag on your profile, it's because you're Russian, and so there aren't many people with your name in the UK yet!

Reply 3

% of people with a more high-status name 67

% of people with a more rural name 30

damn!!

Reply 4

Category of surname English - Diminutive; Ending with -Ett; Other
Mosaic type with highest index # Coronation Street
Index of top Mosaic type * 208
% of people with a more rural name 23
% of people with a more high-status name 93

:frown:

Reply 5

owned

% of people with a more rural name 100
% of people with a more high-status name 99

Mind you, I'm an 'ethnic minority' :smile:

Reply 6

Dionysus
That suggests that your family is either incredibly posh or very small and insignificant lol. Or more likely, judging by the flag on your profile, it's because you're Russian, and so there aren't many people with your name in the UK yet!


i haven't started spreading my seed yet, so yea...guess you are right.

Reply 7

abrp
i haven't started spreading my seed yet, so yea...guess you are right.

mmm thats a lovely thought. :p:

Reply 8

ooh 34% of people have a more high status name than me

Reply 10


That looks like a really enjoyable read :p:

Reply 11

Category of surname English - Locational Name; Settlement Ending; Well
Mosaic type with highest index # Summer Playgrounds
Index of top Mosaic type * 288
% of people with a more rural name 2
% of people with a more high-status name 70

Heh, I have a town named after me too. :wink:

Reply 12

% of people with a more rural name 66
% of people with a more high-status name 43

Middle of the road. But I'm very countryish in comparison with what this tells me.

Reply 13

60% have a name considered higher-status, darg nabbit.

Interestingly enough, I live in the centre of the high frequency area for people with my name.

Reply 14

Clubber Lang
owned

% of people with a more rural name 100
% of people with a more high-status name 99

Mind you, I'm an 'ethnic minority' :smile:

:ditto:

98% of people have a more rural name than me (and 28% a more high status name)

That said, people do sometimes confuse for for a certain MP's daughter... :flute:

Reply 15

Cool, it has my surname on the database, even though it's Polish. It even says "Imported From Abroad; European; Polish"


Apparently, there were a lot of Poles in the Lothians as of 1998.


% of people with a more rural name 88
% of people with a more high-status name 84


I'm as common as mud, then. But my mother's maiden name returned the results:

% of people with a more rural name 95
% of people with a more high-status name 8

I guess she married out of her station.

Reply 16

% of people with a more rural name 57
% of people with a more high-status name 17

pah...

but then mothers maiden name

% of people with a more rural name 61
% of people with a more high-status name 4

hmmmm...

Reply 17

% of people with a more rural name 84
% of people with a more high-status name 86
Cultural, Ethnic, Linguistic categories of surname British

ooh nice.
I like my last name, sounds kinda prestigious and I share it with a very grand dead fellow :smile:

Reply 18

% of people with a more high-status name - 49
% of people with a more rural name - 45

No results for my grandmother's maiden name, weird.

Reply 19

I'm fairly middle of the road 37% of people with a higher status name and 32% with a more rural name. However, I grew up being picked on and some choice names were, among others, snob and posh.