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Maps

The maps shows the geographical spread of the surname in Great Britain. This is shown for the 120 Postcode areas (eg, CB for Cambridge, B for Birmingham) on mainland Britain and associated islands (ie, including the Shetlands and Hebrides but not Northern Ireland or the Isle of Man).

The postal areas are shown in one of six colours from purple, highest concentration of the name, to white, lowest concentration of the name (see colour key on the right of the page).

For the purpose of the maps a highest concentration means the postal area(s) which, for the surname in question, have the highest frequency per million names. This means that the postal areas are graded according to the relative number of electors with the name, not according to the absolute number.

The colouring has been arranged so that approximately one sixth (just over 16.6%) of all the electors with the selected surname will live in postal areas in each of the six coloured bands. That is, one sixth will be found in the purple areas, one sixth in red, one sixth in orange, etc. The more areas are coloured, the more "flat" the distribution of the name is, and the fewer coloured areas the more concentrated the name is.

If the whole map appears to be white and/or you can’t see any postal areas coloured purple this is likely to be because the name is concentrated in inner London postal areas, some of which are so small that they can be difficult to identify on a national map.

Some maps are missing for 1881, where there were no occurrances of the surname in that census.

Geographical Comparisons

The geography page gives a list of variou information related to the geograpical spread of the name.

The Top Area for 1881 and 1998 lists the postcode region where the selected surname is most likely to be found, in comparison with other names. So, for example, if the Top Area for 1998 is Wigan, then it means that a random person in Wigan is more likely to have this name than a random person anywhere else in the country.

The international comparisons show where this name is most likely to be found outside the UK.

The "index" value for top areas and international comparisons is a measurement of how much more likely the name is to be found in that area, compared with others. The base number is 100, and higher numbers indicate a higher probability and numbers below 100 a lower probability. So, for example, a Top Area index of 200 for a name means that the someone in that area is twice as likely to have that name when compared with Britain as a whole. The higher the index value, the more concentrated the distribution of the name is.

Ethnic Breakdown

The Ethnic Breakdown section gives the percentage of people with the selected surname that have a given name (forename/Christian name) of the specified ethnicity. It doesn't necessarily mean that the people themselves are of the specified ethnicity.

Mosaic Types

Mosaic is a classification developed by and designed to describe typical characteristics of local neighbourhoods. Each postcode is classified into one of 61 different types, each of which has a description of the typical type of person living at that location, based on the demographic and economic characteristics of the area and taking into account things like shopping habits, culture and lifestyles. There is a separate page giving more detailed information on Mosaic Types.