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I've wondered at how, despite surnames being our "clan" or "family" names (and therefore a collection of people) and our first being our individual names, I see
by richardw 11y ago
I've wondered at how, despite surnames being our "clan" or "family" names (and therefore a collection of people) and our first being our individual names, I seem to meet many more people who share firstnames than surnames.
Any way of telling how wrong I am?
- kissickas 11y agoI would say you're probably right. With surnames as the set and first names as individual elements, the elements can be shared much more often while the set needs to be a unique identifier. There's only one United States of America and one Illinois, but there's a Springfield and Riverside in nearly every state and they all have a Main Street. Also, people gravitate towards naming their children after people (or just names) they like, whereas very few change their surname.