
Originally Posted by
Hamar Fox
The problem with British names is that many of them have more than one origin. Davis and Williams aren't even predominantly, much less exclusively Welsh. Jones, Davies and Price, though more common in Wales, also have English origins in many cases.
The main reason Muslim/Indian and Welsh names rank so high is that both groups simply have less variety in their names than the English. Probably 50% of Welsh are called Jones, Evans or Morgan, which explains why Welsh names are higher than Irish, even though Irish heritage is more common in England.
Most English are realistically going to have small amounts of other British nationalities in their ancestry. In some places (London and Lancashire) it's significantly more than the national average. But elsewhere, it's not overwhelmingly high.
Here are all the names in my ancestry:
Allen -- English
Barber -- English
Bates -- English
Boothroide -- English, Yorkshire
Borrett -- English, Norfolk
Bramah -- English, Yorkshire
Brooke -- English, Yorkshire
Brotherton -- English, Yorkshire
Bucktrout -- English, Yorkshire
Butler -- English
Clayton -- English, Yorkshire
Davis -- English
Day -- English
Denton -- English
Dibb -- English, Yorkshire
Fox -- English
Ganly -- Irish
Gledhill -- English, Yorkshire
Grave -- English
Griffiths -- Welsh
Hall -- English
Handley -- English
Hardy -- English
Hart -- English
Holmes -- English
Hopwood -- English, Lancashire
Illingsworth -- English, Yorkshire
Keighley -- English, Yorkshire
Lancaster -- English, Lancashire
Langster -- English
Leach -- English
Long -- English
Lyon -- English
Marsden -- English, Yorkshire
Peace -- English, Yorkshire
Potter -- English
Prince -- English
Pryer -- English
Sutton -- English
Ray -- English
Renor -- English
Reynolds -- English
Robinson -- English, Yorkshire
Sanderson -- English
Saville -- English, Yorkshire
Simpson -- English
Scott -- Northern English/Scottish
Shooter -- English, Yorkshire
Smith -- English
Spivey -- English, Yorkshire
Spurling -- English, Norfolk
Stephenson -- English
Stoddart -- English, Northumbria
Stones -- English
Terry -- English
Tiernan -- Irish
Tingle -- English, Yorkshire
Trever -- Not sure, maybe Welsh
Turner -- English
Wild -- English
Willis -- English
*The two Irish names came by way of my Irish great-grandmother. The two Welsh names just popped up, but their bearers weren't Welsh-born.
I don't think I'm unrepresentative. I'd say foreign ancestry is lower in the English than most other european nations, and when it exists, it's almost always from other Britons and therefore no big deal.
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