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Public Profiler Maps Global Surnames

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Surnames, we all have them. But do we know where they came from and how they’re distributed around the globe. Possibly not, but now there’s an easy way to find out – the Public Profiler web site.

Developed by geographers from University College London, it uses data from electoral rolls and phone books covering 26 countries and 300 million people to offer maps of surnames – where they’re from and where they’ve gone.

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One of the researchers, Professor Paul Longley, told the BBC:

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"The information is not just historical but geographical. We can link names to places – a name is now not just a statement of who you are but where you are."

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