What's In Name?

The top panel (a) shows the proportion of birth records in each Finnish parish containing a hereditary surname across 50 year time periods from 1650 - 1800 (blue = less hereditary surnames; red = more). The bottom panel (b) then plots inferred prefix-name per parish over the same time periods (blue = lower information; red = higher). As can be seen, Finnish prefix-name entropy increased as a proportion of the increased use of hereditary bynames, with both being reflected in an east/west gradient of change.

First names in Western countries today are more diverse than they were before early modern states evolved. This difference started to emerge in the 17th century in response to a change that took place in the naming system in large parts of Europe and the English-speaking world. Societies moved away from attributive last names - based on occupation or appearance like John (the) Short - to inherited surnames. Researchers at the University of Tübingen, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of California at Irvine, and the University of Texas at Austin say the fixing of last names meant a loss of information within the naming system, which had to be compensated for - which is why first names now convey more and more information. The study has been published in the latest Nature Communications.

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