

How many surnames would it take to cover half the U.S. population? - nostrademons
http://glassbottomblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/surname-frequencies.html

======
rauljara
Why the estimate? If you follow the links on the wikipedia page to the US
census site, they have the data just sitting there. There is a big CSV file
with the 150436 most common names. They even have a field with cumulative
number of occurrences per 100,000.

Number of surnames it takes to get 50% of the US population: 2182

The 2182nd surname: JERNIGAN

~~~
klodolph
I was going to post this exact comment on the blog but it requires some kind
of draconian registration scheme. I guess the blogger doesn't really like
getting feedback.

~~~
epochwolf
It's on blogspot. You can comment with your google account or an openid.

------
huherto
When I was working in the U.S. I was surprised to see the great variety of
surnames. I looked at the directory and there were about 200 engineers in the
building. There was not a single repeated surname. It was interesting the
great variety of origins. (e.g Polish, German, Spanish, Arab, Indian, etc,
etc.) On the other hand a lot of people had the same names. (John, Mike, Dave)
Here in Latin America is different, many people share the same family names,
but we have more variety of first names.

~~~
dangoldin
Interesting point!

It would be useful to see this type of analysis done for different countries
to see the social diversity.

~~~
vkdelta
India?

