Family names as indicators of Britain’s changing regional geography

In recent years the geography of surnames has become increasingly researched in genetics, epidemiology, linguistics and geography. Surnames provide a useful data source for the analysis of population structure, migrations, genetic relationships and levels of cultural diffusion and interaction between communities. The Worldnames database (www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames) of 300 million people from 26 countries georeferenced in many cases to the equivalent of UK Postcode level provides a rich source of surname data. This work has focused on the UK component of this dataset, that is the 2001 Enhanced Electoral Role, georeferenced to Output Area level. Exploratory analysis of the distribution of surnames across the UK shows that clear regions exist, such as Cornwall, Central Wales and Scotland, in agreement with anecdotal evidence. This study is concerned with applying a wide range of methods to the UK dataset to test their sensitivity and consistency to surname regions. Methods used thus far are hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering, barrier algorithms, such as the Monmonier Algorithm, and Multidimensional Scaling. These, to varying degrees, have highlighted the regionality of UK surnames and provide strong foundations to future work and refinement in the UK context. Establishing a firm methodology has enabled comparisons to be made with data from the Great British 1881 census, developing insights into population movements from within and outside Great Britain

Does Revolution Work? Evidence from Nepal’s People’s War

In 2015, after a decade-long conflict and nine years of negotiation, Nepal promulgated a constitution that replaced its 240-year-old monarchy by a federal republic. The subsequent 2017 local elections ushered more than 30,000 first-time politicians into office. Using a census of 3.68 million Nepalis (2.56 million of whom are of voting age) covering eleven districts, party nomination lists and party candidate selection committee surveys, electoral data and information on conflict incidence, we document that castes that were historically excluded from political representation achieved representation without a significant representation-ability trade-off: improved social representation among politicians is accompanied by positive selection on education and income. Triangulating across multiple data sources, we show that the entry of the revolutionary Maoist group as a post-conflict mainstream party played an important role. Finally, political representation of non-elite castes improved their policy inclusion as measured by individual access to earthquake reconstruction transfers. These gains, however, vary with the extent of social connections to the elected mayor and point to a continuing need to balance power by supporting institutions that provide all citizens political voice

The Family Name as Socio-Cultural Feature and Genetic Metaphor: From Concepts to Methods

A recent workshop entitled The Family Name as Socio-Cultural Feature and Genetic Metaphor: From Concepts to Methods was held in Paris in December 2010, sponsored by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and by the journal Human Biology. This workshop was intended to foster a debate on questions related to the family names and to compare different multidisciplinary approaches involving geneticists, historians, geographers, sociologists and social anthropologists. This collective paper presents a collection of selected communications

The cultural, ethnic and linguistic classification of populations and neighbourhoods using personal names

There are growing needs to understand the nature and detailed composition of ethnicgroups in today?s increasingly multicultural societies. Ethnicity classifications areoften hotly contested, but still greater problems arise from the quality and availabilityof classifications, with knock on consequences for our ability meaningfully tosubdivide populations. Name analysis and classification has been proposed as oneefficient method of achieving such subdivisions in the absence of ethnicity data, andmay be especially pertinent to public health and demographic applications. However,previous approaches to name analysis have been designed to identify one or a smallnumber of ethnic minorities, and not complete populations.This working paper presents a new methodology to classify the UK population andneighbourhoods into groups of common origin using surnames and forenames. Itproposes a new ontology of ethnicity that combines some of its multidimensionalfacets; language, religion, geographical region, and culture. It uses data collected atvery fine temporal and spatial scales, and made available, subject to safeguards, at thelevel of the individual. Such individuals are classified into 185 independentlyassigned categories of Cultural Ethnic and Linguistic (CEL) groups, based on theprobable origins of names. We include a justification for the need of classifyingethnicity, a proposed CEL taxonomy, a description of how the CEL classification wasbuilt and applied, a preliminary external validation, and some examples of current andpotential applications