I do have a more serious matter to blog on, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around that potential post, so in the mean time here's an interesting web page I came across (via BBC news). The World Name Profiler is a cool little ap that if you plug a surname into it, you can see where the names most commonly occur (by country and by delving a little deeper by localities). It searches things like electoral lists to come up with the data, and shows you just how frequently (occurrances per million) the name occurs within populations. They currently have data from 26 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania. Be aware though that there server is a little overwhelmed right now because of the publicity and it may take several tries before you get your results.
Kines is a pretty uncommon name. It may have started differently elsewhere, but with my family the name changed when my Great Great Grandfather (and family) emigrated from Ireland. I understand that it was Kyne over there.
A quick look for Kines shows that Canada has the largest density of Kines at 7.11 per million. Given we have about 33.39 million people that would translate to only about 237 of us. Seems low, but if it is electoral lists they use it would not include children and would be on the low side of real populations regardless. The US follows with 3.42 fpm and then Norway, Denmark and Great Britain.
By region, Manitoba comes out on top with the largest density of us, not surprising given the smaller population and that it was where much of the family (our family) settled. Next comes West Virginia and Alabama. At one time (perhaps it is still the case) the Defensive Coordinator for Alabama's Crimson Tide football team was a Joe Kines.
So there you have it, something to while away a bit of time and ponder on your roots. Or just how common or rare your surname might be.
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2 responses
Clare–I’m very glad you are back blogging.
Thanks larry.