Social status is not something we Quakers are concerned with of course, but Eye would like to share news of a project academics have undertaken at University College London to map surnames. This is part of a study which it is hoped will throw light on regional economic development and cultural identity. There is a website which can tell you something about your name – where it is most commonly found, and what social status is accorded to it. Who could resist such intriguing information!
Eye thought this a little bit of academic nonsense until we discovered that the poshest name on the block turns out to be Cadbury!
The UCL researchers say that they have made their calculations by cross-referencing postcodes from the electoral roll with educational attainment, employments levels, financial data and health statistics to arrive at average status for each name.
The lead researcher Paul Longley says that while some may feel the results are not true of their family, the results do tend to be true in aggregate. ‘People may have anecdotal evidence about their family doing well, but the family line can still have done badly,’ he says.
Eye was amused to see among the blog-responses to this story on the BBC web magazine, one from possibly a Quaker explaining the Cadbury connections –‘it is beyond ironic that Cadburys should now be deemed top of the social pile by academics!’
For those of you who can’t resist, here is the weblink!
www.spatial-literacy.org