The Geography of Names

As I typed my surname "Kelly" into The World Names Profiler, I wasn't sure exactly what the results would look like.  It was not a surprise that the country with the most concentration of my name is Ireland, with a FPM of 13330.96 (a lot!).

I recreated the table below:

Country	FPM
IRELAND	13330.96
AUSTRALIA	2683.19
UNITED KINGDOM	1762.44
NEW-ZEALAND	1290.89
CANADA	1286.39
UNITED STATES	1124.82
ARGENTINA	36.2
LUXEMBOURG	34.01
NETHERLANDS	33.24
SWITZERLAND	30.03

What surprised me was that the United States was not second, but fell after Australia and New Zealand and the UK, even!  It is interesting think that in all of these locations I probably have distant relatives, and I am one of the odd balls who came to the United States back in the 1800s from Germany, which isn't even on this short list! There are even Kellys in Argentina, according to this site, which is really cool! I wonder if they are some of the German, Lutheran immigrants who settled in Southern Brazil and Argentina.  I was surprised at the diverse locations also included India!

I also wanted to enter in my mother's maiden name, Zieroth, because I had NEVER met anyone not related to her with this name.  I knew it was German so I thought there would be some there and in the US and maybe Canada...what did I find? Well, there are .47 millioin Zieroths in the United States, which is way more than I anticipated! However, the US is not even first on the list.  Before it are Germany, Canada, and Switzerland.  I can't help wondering what my Grandma will say when I tell her about this!

It is very interesting see the concentration of surnames (and consequently families) mapped out! Who knew that there were Kellys in Argentina as well as New Zealand! How wonderful is the diversity throughout our world!