Why do so many people bearing the surname Paxman live in Romford? Where have most of the Smiths congregated, and what name is most commonly shared by Welsh farmers?
A research project investigating the distribution of surnames in Britain answers these questions and more in a website, www.spatial-literacy.org, which will be launched tomorrow.
'Along with providing a fascinating source of information for people wanting to trace their roots, our study was aimed at understanding patterns of regional economic development, population movement and cultural identity,' says Professor Paul Longley, who heads the project with Professor Richard Webber of University College, London.
The study found that surnames are still extremely regional. Smith, for example, remains the most common surname in Britain, used by more than half a million people, and has exactly the same centre of concentration as it always did, in Lerwick, Shetland.
But between 1881 and 1998 the area in which the Paxmans were most concentrated shifted from Cambridge to Romford. Jones is the number two surname, shared by 400,000 people, most commonly among hill farmers in Blaenau Ffestiniog, North Wales.