Distribution maps of European surnames by country

[Maciamo]

Have you ever wondered where your family name was most common or if it existed in other countries ? You can check it on various websites that compute distribution maps for any surname (usually based on telephone registers).

• United Kingdom (alternative)
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• France (alternative 1, alternative 2)
• Germany (alternative)
• Poland
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Italy (alternative)
• Spain

France's Geopatronyme and the UK's public profiler are the only site that provide historical data (going back to 1881 for the UK and 1891 for France), although Geopatronyme has the advantage of having four distinct periods instead of two (so that you can see the evolution in distribution across generations).

Germany's Geogen is the only one that calculates relative distribution (as a percentage of the population) in addition to the absolute figures.

The Dutch and Belgian sites have the finest scale, giving distributions at the municipal level (instead of province/county/département level for other sites).

There seem to be frequent server problems with Verwandt, the site powering the maps for Austria, Switzerland and Spain.

[sparkey]

There seem to be frequent server problems with Verwandt, the site powering the maps for Austria, Switzerland and Spain.

It looks like there's a problem with the form on the Austria version of the site. To get around that, I searched with the Swiss version and replaced ".ch" in the URL with ".at" on the result page, and it displayed correctly.

So my surname is clearly German language (before it was Anglicized), and it's pretty clear which of the German speaking countries it comes from after looking at the distribution maps:

[zanipolo]

To a degree it makes sense to find the area by ones surname, but another way is to associate your surname with a name of a town/village ( with a slight lettering variation )

As for me:
26 in the veneto - north Italy
1 in piedmont - north italy
1 in marche - central italy
1 in toulouse - south france

seems clear cut


the town system has my surname similar ( very ) to these towns in
Friuli - north italy
normandy - north france
lorraine - east france

[Antigone]

Mmmm Northern Ireland is not included under Great Britain on both sites. Nor Southern Ireland for that matter, which was still a part of Great Britain before 1921. For Irish surnames it will only give the distribution in England, Scotland and Wales.

For anyone with an Irish surname there is a searchbase here http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/surname/ but it is only from 1848-64.

[MarTyro]

• United Kingdom (alternative)
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• France (alternative 1, alternative 2)
• Germany (alternative)
• Poland
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Italy (alternative)
• Spain

Thank you for this collection. I think they are based mainly on telephone book entries. Here one more for Italy (indettaglio.it). I know one very interesting example based on public records:
South Tyrol - Italy (Territoriale Verteilung Ihres Nachnamens - Melderegister 2010)

[Mzungu mchagga]

Yes, this map is based on phone book entries. Odd thing is, that I know ALL of my surename carriers in Germany by person

[himagain]

Thank you Maciamo. This was very helpful to me.

[zanipolo]

I do not know what this form is called but I will explain, in the north-east Italy they have a lot of endings like, otto, otti, oni.
What I found out is that this version was given to males who where second, third, fourth etc sons of anyone with wealth. The reason was to stop distribution of family wealth beyond the first son. So, otto ending meant tall frame, otti is medium and oni ( or on ) meant small frame.
The ending in in as in Pellegrin, Morosin, Serafin, Zanin etc was used in both forms to mean son of or from a town as in Vicenzin from Vicenza.

The pure venetian endings can be found with igo

An example
Zane - family surname ( a doge once) means Giovanni in Italian and John in English
first son = Zane
other sons depending on bodyframe at manhood - tall is Zanotto, medium = Zanotti and smallish = Zanoni or Zanon
and yes there is Zanin, which indicates son of, but again excluded from family wealth.

[Christiaan]

Have you ever wondered where your family name was most common or if it existed in other countries ? You can check it on various websites that compute distribution maps for any surname (usually based on telephone registers).

• United Kingdom (alternative)
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• France (alternative 1, alternative 2)
• Germany (alternative)
• Poland
• Austria
• Switzerland
• Italy (alternative)
• Spain

France's Geopatronyme and the UK's public profiler are the only site that provide historical data (going back to 1881 for the UK and 1891 for France), although Geopatronyme has the advantage of having four distinct periods instead of two (so that you can see the evolution in distribution across generations).

Germany's Geogen is the only one that calculates relative distribution (as a percentage of the population) in addition to the absolute figures.

The Dutch and Belgian sites have the finest scale, giving distributions at the municipal level (instead of province/county/département level for other sites).

There seem to be frequent server problems with Verwandt, the site powering the maps for Austria, Switzerland and Spain.

others are:

• World ->based on genealogical data http://en.geneanet.org/surnames/
• Germany ->Reichstelefonbuch 1942 http://www.gen-evolu.de/

[Selwyn Greenfrith]

It looks like there's a problem with the form on the Austria version of the site. To get around that, I searched with the Swiss version and replaced ".ch" in the URL with ".at" on the result page, and it displayed correctly.

So my surname is clearly German language (before it was Anglicized), and it's pretty clear which of the German speaking countries it comes from after looking at the distribution maps:

You mean your lastname is clearly 'German language' (before it was Frenchified), and it is pretty clear which bits of the German speaking lands it is found in most manifoldness aka Switzerland's: Freiburg or should that be" Fribourg canton/Kanton(?)

[sparkey]

You mean your lastname is clearly 'German language' (before it was Frenchified), and it is pretty clear which bits of the German speaking lands it is found in most manifoldness aka Switzerland's: Freiburg or should that be" Fribourg canton/Kanton(?)

I'm not quite sure what you mean. My surname was Anglicized ca. 1770 from an original surname carried by German speakers. That German speakers' surname is most common in Bern Canton, Switzerland, and it is almost unheard of outside of Switzerland.

[Pi gman]

I'm not so sure they are based on the telephone book. Perhaps they are based on civil records like births, marriages, and deaths. Are these records public or private in France?

There is only that is found (currently)in the original spelling of my surname (Pigmon) in France. It is in Hautes-Pyrenees.

Some time ago I asked nice French lady to look it up in the phone book and there is no entry there. I believe it is a 1960's birth record. I sure wish I could talk to my distant cousins there.

Curtis Pigman(in France Pigmon/Pimond)

[Selwyn Greenfrith]

Reckon Pigman/Pigmon is indeed French but folk should bear in mind that lots of lastnames in the Anglosphere thought to be of Huguenot/Walloon (and even Norman before that) roots, are nowt but Frenchified or pseudo-Frenchified Flemish names. Indeed there is some website out there which sets out how loads of Flemish/Dutch incomers lastnames to England were unhingedlike mistakenly listed as Huguenot/Walloon and so forth.

[Selwyn Greenfrith]

I'm not quite sure what you mean. My surname was Anglicized ca. 1770 from an original surname carried by German speakers. That German speakers' surname is most common in Bern Canton, Switzerland, and it is almost unheard of outside of Switzerland.

Going by the map it seemed as if your Anglicized German lastname clusters about Freiburg (itself neighbouring to Bern) which I thought was ironic inasmuch as Fribourg is an example of a historically German speaking Kanton of Switzerland which has been steadily Frenchified.

[MOESAN]

I'm not so sure they are based on the telephone book. Perhaps they are based on civil records like births, marriages, and deaths. Are these records public or private in France?

There is only that is found (currently)in the original spelling of my surname (Pigmon) in France. It is in Hautes-Pyrenees.

Some time ago I asked nice French lady to look it up in the phone book and there is no entry there. I believe it is a 1960's birth record. I sure wish I could talk to my distant cousins there.

Curtis Pigman(in France Pigmon/Pimond)

if you read french, there is an interesting forum for personal and placenames curiously accessible by typing: "forum noms de famille - cartes ppstales du Roussillon" and entering Email address and code number, free

[Pi gman]

Selwyn,
Indeed, I have recently found the Pigman surname in Old Hunstanton and Norwich, Norfolk. The family apparently was there from around 1620 on. At first they were listed in the non-conformist records. Apparently, some did not stay perhaps because of the new persecution of the Huguenots in England and some stayed and some Pigmans went to Tilburg, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands and at least one (my ancestor) to colonial Maryland where he first shows up in 1695 purchasing a plantation.

Pigmon in Correze, Limousin, France seems to be the place although Pigmon is also in Rhone-Alpes. All Pigmon early records are transcribed as Pimond. The name changed around 1800 to Pimont. Even by looking at the orignals I have still not, however found the links!!!

Curtis Pigman (French - Pigmon/Pimond/Pÿmond and Greek - Pygmon)

[Pi gman]

if you read french, there is an interesting forum for personal and placenames curiously accessible by typing: "forum noms de famille - cartes ppstales du Roussillon" and entering Email address and code number, free

Thanks Moesan,

I signed up and I am awaiting approval by e-mail from the web site. I can read some French but I generally use Google translate.

Curtis Pigman (French - Pigmon/Pimond/Pÿmond and Greek - Pygmon)

[Selwyn Greenfrith]

Going by the map it seemed as if your Anglicized German lastname clusters about Freiburg (itself neighbouring to Bern) which I thought was ironic inasmuch as Fribourg is an example of a historically German speaking Kanton of Switzerland which has been steadily Frenchified.

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