Balls and Bottoms give way to Wangs in name game

[kristopher]

LONDON (Reuters) - The number of people in Britain with surnames like Cockshott, Balls, Death and Shufflebottom -- likely the source of schoolroom laughter -- has declined by up to 75 percent in the last century.

A study found the number of people with the name Cock shrank to 785 last year from 3,211 in 1881, those called Balls fell to 1,299 from 2,904 and the number of Deaths were reduced to 605 from 1,133.

People named Smellie decreased by 70 percent, Dafts by 51 percent, Gotobeds by 42 percent, Shufflebottoms by 40 percent, and Cockshotts by 34 percent, said Richard Webber, visiting professor of geography at King's College, London.

"If you find the (absolute) number goes down, it's either because they changed their names or they emigrated," Webber, author of the study, told Reuters on Wednesday.

He said that in many cases, people probably...

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE52O5IN20090325?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

[MADem]

1. They changed their names, and who can blame them. nt

[ContinentalOp]

2. LOL, best news story ever! -nt-

[lutherj]

3. I remember reading once that when the surfs were freed in England their

overlords gave them their surnames, which often turned out to be less than flattering. The example cited was Goldwater, which is a euphamism for urine.

[Ian David]

4. Let's not forget Mr. Smokestoomuch. n/t

[DCKit]

5. Yet, here in Amurika, new and bizarre names with impossible spellings...

are being generated at a phenomenal rate.

Idiocracy.

[Egalitariat]

6. I wonder how a buy named Richard decided to study that?***

nm

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Extra modern problem for those called 'Cock' etc.: e-mail spam filters

I know someone who can't use her name written properly in e-mails because of it, and has to ask other people to spell it differently too to avoid their own filters.