Surnames and genetics

Abstract

There are fascinating parallels between surnames and genetics, and the extent and scale of them has only been recently revealed thanks to the availability in digital form of full population registers and new mapping methodologies. Surnames are typically patrilinearly inherited, and so are some of our genes. If families don’t move from an area nor mix with newcomers over generations, surname frequencies will reflect clusters of population isolation that have a clear correspondence with lack of genetic diversity, and sometimes the development of unique dialects and language features. Starting with Darwin, this chapter weaves together the evidence of how languages, names, genes and human origins all seem to tell a similar story about our ancestral origin and the way populations have mixed, isolated themselves, or migrated over the last few centuries.