Spatial concentrations of surnames in Great Britain

Family names have been overlooked as a valuable source of spatially referenced population data. Presented here is a methodology published in Cheshire and Longley (2011), based on kernel density estimation that is used to identify the areas of Great Britain where any surname is most concentrated. This not only provides confirmation of a surname's geographic origin in the country but also its current spatial extent and spatial relationship with other surnames and place names. We argue that analysis using historic and contemporary data can provide baseline and change measures, and an empirical basis to change forecasting. Such analysis can provide valuable insights into national, regional and local changes in population structure, and testimony to the relevance of GIScience to population genetics, historical geography and genealogy.