Where is Your Name in the World?

A team of geographers from University College in London have used data from electoral rolls and telephone directories to map the distribution of 10.8 million surnames around the world. The information collected in this study, which covers a billion people in 26 countries, is available on the Web site Public Profiler: World Names, allowing genealogists and others with an interest to view where different names have originated and how families have scattered across the globe through migration. It's basically a takeoff on the popular National Trust Names Web site which displayed the concentration of surnames across the UK.

Professor Paul Longley, who launched the site at the Royal Geographical Society's conference in London, said: "This websites broadens the previous one and looks at the distribution of names in 26 countries.

"A name doesn't just tell you who you are – but where you are, where you came from and where your family has gone."