National Trust Names

Maybe everybody already knows about this, but I couldn't find any mention of it in old threads.  It's a mapping of British surnames.

I looked up my family's surnames on the site a couple years ago when it was a project of University College London.  It has apparently been taken over by the National Trust since then. 

http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/

What you do is click on "Surname Search" in the righthand corner of the little bar at the top of the page, and enter whatever name you want to look up.

You can find out what the UK geographical spread was of your name on maps from 1881 and 1998.  You can find out the frequency and ethnicity.  You can find out which social demographic classification has the most people with your name.  You can find out where in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and the US, the most people with your last name moved.

I did it with my husband's surname and in 1881 there was only one tiny pocket of people in the whole UK.  By 1998 they had spread out a bit, but not much!  My grandmother's surname was in a slightly larger area in 1881, and quite widespread by 1998.  The state in the US with the most people of my grandmother's surname was Iowa, which is where she was born!  The social demographic classification (1998) for the largest group of people in the UK with my grandmother's surname was "Tower Block Living".  Upon investigation I found that category was "Of all the types, these are amongst the poorest, in every sense..."  What can I say?   

What a great site!  This will keep me well occupied while I wait for my bread to rise   Thanks Tin!!

That is so cool!  Although it did me a while to figure out you have to click on the map display area to get it to show -- duh.

Glad you liked it. 

I did my DH's name. I knew it was a northeastern English name, but was surprised HOW much so. Cool.

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.

:-(

I won't even try my last name, as all my family are from Spain/Cuba!

It's really interesting!  I knew my hubby's surname was originally Scottish, but it was cool to see such a specific area come up.  I also tried his Mum's maiden name.

My unmarried surname didn't come up and I knew it wouldn't, but I tried just to see. (My great-grandparents all came to the US from Poland and Russia.)

my maiden name isn't on there, not surprising considering how unusual it is.   Tried DH's last name and his last name is concentrated mainly in Yorkshire and the East Midlands, which was cool to see since his family is from Nottingham & Leicestershire.

Weirdly enough, my maiden name is concentrated heavily in the Glasgow area and western Scotland!!

It's not a Scottish name whatsoever...

Sooooo weird!

I typed in my maiden name and for 1881 and the only thing that came up (and was in dark blue) was the exact town I now live in!!!!   How weird that I have now randomly picked up and moved from America to the exact town my ancestors lived in! Crazy! 

Sooooo weird!

I typed in my maiden name and for 1881 and the only thing that came up (and was in dark blue) was the exact town I now live in!!!!   How weird that I have now randomly picked up and moved from America to the exact town my ancestors lived in! Crazy! 

Wow, that is weird!

Sooooo weird!

I typed in my maiden name and for 1881 and the only thing that came up (and was in dark blue) was the exact town I now live in!!!!   How weird that I have now randomly picked up and moved from America to the exact town my ancestors lived in! Crazy! 

That's cool.  Did you look up which state in the US had the most people with your maiden name?  It will be even funnier if you've moved from that place to this place - a perfect reverse migration! 

Wow, that is weird!

That's cool.  Did you look up which state in the US had the most people with your maiden name?  It will be even funnier if you've moved from that place to this place - a perfect reverse migration! 

Yeh, even weirder because my maiden surname is quite unique and not even British.  I couldnt figure out how to do that thing to figure out which state most people with my surname lived in, but I wouldnt be surprised if it was NY (where im from) because my family is massive. Where on that page can I see that?

Yeh, even weirder because my maiden surname is quite unique and not even British.  I couldnt figure out how to do that thing to figure out which state most people with my surname lived in, but I wouldnt be surprised if it was NY (where im from) because my family is massive. Where on that page can I see that?

If you're looking at the 1998 map page, click on "Geographical Location" in that top blue-grey bar.  Look down through the table until you find the US state info.  There will be another table lower down with the social demographic catagory of your name too.

If you're looking at the 1998 map page, click on "Geographical Location" in that top blue-grey bar.  Look down through the table until you find the US state info.  There will be another table lower down with the social demographic catagory of your name too.

Ahhh ... i see! Found the table and where it says that but for my maiden surname its left blank.. boo hoo!  Still a very cool site though. Cheers Tin