November 17, 2007

Uncommon

Only one of the last names from my five* grandparents even cracks the list of the top 5000 most common in the US, and even that one isn't in the top 1000. Makes some sense, I guess, given that my ethnic group is only something like 3% of the population, but it's still a little surprising how uncommon the names in my family are.

Although, actually, given this:
Altogether, the census found six million surnames in the United States. Among those, 151,000 were shared by a hundred or more Americans. Four million were held by only one person.

It sort of looks like a top 5000 list is going to be pretty limited, since there are so many names.

*Four by birth, one by adoption.

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