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Localize Your Surname with Distribution Maps

Nathan W. Murphy, MA, AG®

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Genealogists and various organizations in Europe and North America have produced maps that make learning about your surnames fun!

Surname-distribution maps are great aids to determining immigrant origins. They work particularly well for studies of less-common surnames and in countries that did not use patronymics. United States researchers should remember to search for variant surname spellings, especially for those with European ancestors whose surnames were Anglicized in America. If immigrants arrived in family units, identifying places where both the father and mother’s surnames were prevalent, provides valuable clues about their origins.

The following searches are free:

The following commercial companies sell surname distribution maps or programs which create them:

In order to “do it yourself” and create your own surname-distribution maps, you will need to identify sources in ancestral countries that are indexed nationwide. Census records, telephone directories, and civil registrations of births, marriages, and deaths are often very useful. After creating a list of places for a surname, simply plot them on a map. This process should ideally be completed several times, using various sources, at different moments in time to track migrations through the centuries.

Here is a telephone directory that covers several foreign countries:

  • Infobel: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

Surname Navigator contains a one-step search engine to find your surnames in several foreign countries.

Here are examples of online nationwide source indexes for various countries:

Here are examples of published nationwide indexes:

  • Geographie der Luxemburger Familiennamen: (Nach der Volkszählung von 1930) (Luxembourg: Gasperich, 1989).
  • Laurent Fordant, Tous les noms de famille de France et leur localisation en 1900 (Paris: Archives & Culture, 1999).
  • Swiss Surnames: A Complete Register Commonly Known as Familiennamenbuch der Schweiz. CD-ROM, 2003, Picton Press, P.O. Box 250, Rockport, ME 04856.

Modern British Surnames is a web site that identifies useful British sources for studying surname distributions.