Posted on 09/02/2010 4:17:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Scientists have proposed a worldwide fight to push back common surnames, suggesting in a German journal that the custom of always naming children after their fathers must stop.
Harald Jockusch and Alexander Fuhrmann warned rare surnames were dying out while too many Chinese were named Wang, too many English speakers were named Smith and too many Germans were named Mueller.
They proposed that husbands and wives be obliged to weigh up which of their two surnames was rarest and give the rarer one to their children. The two published a mathematical model showing what would then happen if common surnames were weeded out this way.
In the simplest scenario, after 50 years, the most common names might become only one fifth as common as now, they predicted.
Ah, yes, soon there will be entire cohorts of baby Drills, and (sob!) the world will be a better place for it. (Snork!)
File this under useless grants given to scientists.
Interesting topic - several of our paternal family names became extinct in just two generations - as a result of giving birth to girls only. Weird and sad.
That way, no-one can discriminate based on your name.
(Ahem) I once had a Korean engineer named Sunny Stalnaker...pretty good engineer too.
So this is what the Climate Change “scientists” are working on now??
I wonder if this is one of those recurring “discoveries” of science, like how they “discover” about every 25 years that blondes will be bred out of existence, ignoring all science to the contrary while making enough of a fuss to feather their own nests for some time to come.
My husband’s surname may die out in the states. Three brothers can to America, his grandfather, and two great uncles. Grandfather has no great-grand sons, and everyone who could have a child has finished - only girls.
Grand Uncle 1 also has no great granddaughters - Only Grand Uncle 2 has 1 great grand son.
My younger daughter wants to try to get her future fiancee to change his name to hers and hopes to have a son
But over all, very odd considering most of the families have 2-4 kids, just all great grand daughters, or great grand sons from the females who carry their father’s names
You can always adopt...
Save the endangered surnames!
This is obviously well worth investing our interest and resources into.
We should have people voluntarily adopt particular surnames to help preserve them. Hillary Clinton, for example, could apply to change her name to Hillary Schicklgruber.
And Barack Obama could lead the way to this brave new world by adopting one of the world’s rarest surnames, legally changing to become Barack Iglooexgatroglyvestazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzakhhakkkkkhppt.
Have one. “Pavek.” It’s Czech for “little peacock.”
I am the last male hetero with my sirname. Still seems like stupid idea to me.
Maybe we should restart the old scandinavian custom of alternating last names between generations.
Sven Janson would have a son named Jan Svenson, then Jan’s son would be Sven Janson.
Of course, these days it would be Bill Donorson or Jerry Unknownson.
Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death. I have committed even before setting pen to paper the essential crime that contains all others unto itself. -Winston Smith
So, if always taking the grooms surname leads to the dying out of uncommon names, then males must be more likely to be born to couples carrying common names.
Just marry a Lipschitz!
As an only child who has only girls for children, I like this idea a lot.
This isn’t as silly as it sounds.
The U.S. is blessed with considerable diversity in its name stocks — the British Isles form the core, followed by Germany, and most of the rest of Europe. Asia and Latin America have been gaining in recent years.
The traditional name stocks of other nations are often skewed toward a few names so extremely common that they create confusion. In Europe, this is particularly true of Scandinavia and the Iberian peninsula.
Denmark has its Andersens and Petersens, Sweden is overrun with Anderssons and Peterssons. And a whole lot of variants thereof.
I read somewhere that about 40 surnames accounts for maybe half of Portugal. Once you get pasts the Pereiras, the Fereira, the da Sousas and the da Costas, you’re not hitting on much.
Spain isn’t quite as bad as Portugal, but you have an awful, awful lot of Garcias and Martinezes.
France, Germany, the Low Countries, and parts of Eastern Europe are fairly diverse. Italy is absolutely fascinating — extreme regional differences all throughout the country, down to where you can often tell what town you’re from. For example, if your last name is Parodi, your ancestors almost certainly came from Genoa. Ditto Vianello or Scarpa and Venice. Esposito is the Neapolitan name par excellance.
This is sort of a weird hobby of mine. Thanks for reading.
I’m changing mine to John Jacobjingleheimersmith.
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