Cultural Factor in the Geographic Distribution of Personal Names: Pseudogenetic Analysis of First Names Used to Estimate the Cultural Component of Coefficients of Relationship by Isonymy

By applying to given names formulations for analyzing the genetics of surname distributions, under certain assumptions one can separate the genetic components from the cultural components of surname distributions. Geographic distributions of surnames regularly yield larger coefficients of relationship or kinship within local populations than between them: for instance, Ri = 75 × 10⁻5 within a local area in England but the Ri of those villages with all of England and Wales is 42 × 10⁻5. On the contrary, the first names in an English and Welsh sample give essentially the same pseudocoefficient (based on first names) within registration districts (Ri = 354 × 10⁻5) as between districts (Ri = 370 × 10⁻5). Thus the decrease with distance of the coefficients based on surnames can be ascribed to the genetic component according to the Malécot principle, assuming that the first names are chosen in the same way as the surnames originated and consequently that the cultural component of surname distributions is no more localized than the distribution of given names (in this sample not at all).