This video is a collaboration with Jabril
who runs a channel called Jabrils.
He has run a simulator to demo the effect of the evolution of last names, and of course has documented his progress in a video.
Be sure to check it out after you are done watching this!
I’m Mr. Beat, and some people don’t believe me when I tell them that’s really my last name.
It's so rare, that only 422 other people living in the United States share my last name.
Only 3,661 other people living in the entire world share my last name.
According to the website Forebears, not four bears, Forebears,
Beat is the 111,426th most popular surname in the world.
It’s most popular in Cameroon, believe it or not.
By the way, surname, aka “family name” is a much more accurate way to describe it.
A surname is basically the name passed down from generation to generation.
It’s inaccurate to call it a “last name” everywhere because in many countries the surname is said first.
So why is my surname so rare?
Hold up, the better question is why so many many people have the SAME last name.
There are so many names to choose from, yet we have so many Johnsons.
(I’m telling you, he should just change his surname to The Rock).
Let’s look at Smith, the most popular last name in the United States.
Here’s my friend Kevin Smith. No, not THAT Kevin Smith.
No, not THAT Kevin Smith.
No no no. Not that one!
Yes, that Kevin Smith. Geez.
So yeah, my friend’s name is so common that are 23 Kevin Smiths currently classified as “notable people” on Wikipedia.
Odds are, there’s a Kevin Smith in the town you currently live in. Why is my friend’s name so common?
First of all, Kevin was the 24th most popular boys name the year he was born, so that increased the number out there.
But this video is about surnames.
Smith is so common because many surnames came from what people did for a living.
Smith is an occupational name, named after working with metal, and because metal work jobs historically have existed a lot of places and because the occupation has historically been so important, the name spread.
Ok, so that explains Smith, but what about Li or Gonzalez or Zhang or Nguyen or Hernandez? Huh Mr. Smarty Pants?
Oops, wrong surname. I mean, huh Mr. Beat?
Well let’s take Nguyen. Between 30 to 40 percent of the entire country of Vietnam have the last name Nguyen.
To put that in perspective, less than 1 percent of Americans have the last name Smith. Why Nguyen?
Well, for generations, Vietnam was just minding its own business, when China decides to be all imperialistic on them and take over.
At the time of the beginning of Chinese imperialism, the Vietnamese did not have surnames.
China literally gave them surnames so that it would be easier to keep track of them.
They gave many of them Nguyen, a Chinese name.
You saw this with other imperialist powers around the world.
That’s why most Filipinos have Spanish names, for example.
This can even be extended to slavery. Many African Americans have surnames from the owners of their slave ancestors.
Well that’s pretty messed up. Geez.
In some cases, people changed their surnames so they wouldn’t get killed.
In other cases, people changed their surname, because they weren’t particularly attached to the old one so they took the one of someone they admired.
This also explains why there are so many Nguyens.
Still, I feel like there is some important information missing here.
So far we have listed three reasons why there are so many people with the same last name:
1. the common occurrence of occupational surnames,
2. people getting surnames forced on them through imperialism,
and 3. people simply choosing surnames to change their identity.
But so far I have left out a mathematical reason why the same last names are appearing a lot more and more.
It’s explained by what’s known as the Galton-Watson process.
The Galton-Watson process comes from two dudes named Francis Galton and Henry William Watson.
Together, they looked at probability and random variables to help explain why some surnames became extinct.
China is a great example of a place where this has happened. There are currently around 3100 surnames in China, compared with almost 12,000 recorded in the past.
Jabril has a simulation to demonstrate this.
Here's a little sample.
Jabril: On initialization, We generate our nation wide population based on an actual 2017 US consensus
We then take 1% of the population & use that variable to sample from the pool of last names
and every citizen randomly gets assigned one of these names. Every timestep for this sim is 1 year, So at every year a citizen gets to do 1 of 4 actions.
Propose to a mate, which is not always successful
Move to another state, which they're entire family will move with them if they have one
Have a child, or
the last action, do absolutely nothing
and again, a lot of these possibilities are based on real-world data
Now, let's run this filthy sim
Mr. Beat: For the rest of that demonstration I will put the link below for you to check out the full video.
Ok, back to the Galton-Watson process.
According to Galton and Watson’s model, over time, assuming family names are passed down from father to son like they are in many cultures, eventually most of these names will become extinct.
You see, there often are not male descendants.
Holy crap, I only have daughters!
What shall I do?!?
Uh, yeah. I really don't care.
The Galton-Watson process is far from perfect, as there are variables it ignores, like the points I brought up earlier.
One other important thing is that, prior to the 1700s, most people around the world didn’t even have surnames, which makes following family trees before difficult.
The bottom line is, the top surnames today continue to grow, while many surnames continue to steadily disappear.
So what about you, James Smith?
That’s the most common name in the United States, and most of my viewers are American, but I guarantee you I just freaked some James Smiths out just now
So where do you think YOUR surname ranks?
Well I’ve posted some links below to find out how common or uncommon your surname is.
And a reminder that this video is a collaboration with Jabril, who runs a channel called Jabrils.
It's an excellent channel. He has a video
he posted at the same time as this one
Where he explains a simulator he built to demo how last names evolve.
While you're over there, be sure to subscribe
for other addictive content. He is a master, ok
Thank you so much for watching.