HOW A CADBURY OUTRANKS A BLAIR OR A BECKHAM
By Beth Hale
DAILY MAIL (London)
June 5, 2006 Monday
SOCIAL climbers don’t need to keep up with the Joneses any more ñ
it’s the Pakenhams and Cadburys they have to worry about now.
The names are among the most socially exclusive in Britain, along
with others such as Fortescue, Weiner and Wastie.
Researchers have just finished ranking the standing of 25,000 surnames.
And their findings reveal that while parents can give their child a
first name to make them appear more highbrow, there is no escaping
a downmarket surname.
The study shows that former Posh Spice Victoria Adams took a step
down the pecking order when she married footballer David Beckham.
Her maiden name outranks 61 per cent of the population, while Beckham
tops just 29 per cent.
And Elizabeth Hurley’s surname reveals that she is at heart a
middle-class girl made good with 52 per cent of the population having
a more high status name.
Several leading politicians have outshone the more lowly origins of
their surnames.
Blair is outranked by 86 per cent of the population and Brown fares
little better, being exceeded by 72 per cent.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett’s family name does better,
coming higher than about half the population. Much has been made of
the higher-class roots of Eton- educated Conservative leader David
Cameron, but still more than half the nation has a higher status name.
As for the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, only 42 per cent of the
population have a higher ranking name.
The research team at University College London have put their findings
online after studying and cross-referencing 46million census documents.
Members of the public can log on to to
discover the origins of their family name. The 12-month, £45,000
project-examined patterns of population movement, social mobility and
cultural identity. It also tracked the distribution of 25,000 surnames
in the 1998 electoral register and compared it with the 1881 census
to chart how people had moved around the country.
Professor Richard Webber and his team ranked names by using the
electoral roll to calculate their frequency in different postcodes,
taking into account employment levels, educational attainment,
financial data and health statistics for each postcode.
They then took an average status for each name from postal districts
across the country.
It emerged that names of Jewish and Armenian origin are among the
top rank.
The results showed that the top 1 per cent of names are dominated
by a mixture of traditional English names with those of more recent
immigrants.
Some upper-class sounding names such as Grosvenor which is the family
name of the Duke of Westminster have become so well- distributed around
the country that they come nowhere near the top of the status tree.
Professor Webber said: ‘People don’t choose their children’s surnames
but inherit them, so most English names are fairly evenly distributed
between higher and lower status areas.
‘But if you look at names that originated from other countries,
they tend to settle in either high or low status areas.
‘So there are a lot of Jewish and Armenian names at the top, and
Ghanian, Vietnamese and Bangladeshi names at the bottom.’
For many people, first names are a more obvious indicator of social
status.
So if you are looking for a high status title for your daughter,
call her Camilla or Elspeth.
If you have a son, name him Giles or Benedict.
And if appearances are important, then avoid Toyah, Wayne or Dwayne.
Professor Webber said: ‘The difference in class of first names is
much greater than for surnames.’
–Boundary_(ID_sXaph6Gv+EvaOctv7vAd1w) —
www.spatial-literacy.org