Interactive Map of Surname Distribution in the UK and Worldwide
See where any surname is found in the UK and around the world: distribution map, concentration by region and the countries where it is most common.
Welcome to SurnameMap.com, your portal for exploring and analyzing the distribution of surnames in the UK and worldwide. With our interactive maps, you can discover the presence and concentration of various surnames across different regions, both nationally and globally. Our goal is to provide a valuable resource for genealogists, historians, and anyone interested in the history and development of surnames over time.
SurnameMap.com is a surname distribution map: type a surname and see where it lives, in the United Kingdom and around the world. Here is what you will find and how to use it.
The map of a surname
In the United Kingdom
Every surname has its own page with its map of the United Kingdom. The areas where the surname is concentrated are highlighted on the map; areas with fewer bearers are shown differently. At a glance you can tell whether a surname is spread across the whole country, tied to a single county, or confined to a handful of towns.
Around the world
Below the national map, the same page includes a world map and the list of countries where that surname appears. This is the part that tells the migration story: a British surname may well have more bearers today on the other side of the Atlantic than in the parish it came from.
How to reach a surname
By searching for it
The search box in the header takes you straight to the page for the surname you type. It is the shortest route when you already know which one you want.
Through the A to Z index
If you would rather browse, every letter has its own listing. Letters with too many surnames are split by two- and three-letter prefixes â "Ab", "Aba" and so on â down to the surname lists, so that no surname is left without a path to it. Each letter page also says how many surnames lie behind it and shows a sample spread across the whole alphabet.
The same surname in ten countries
This map has nine sibling sites, one per language and country: Spain, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark, Poland and Romania. From the language selector in the header you can look up the same surname on any of them and compare where it clusters in each country.
Where the maps come from
The maps are drawn from the recorded presence of each surname in the towns and regions of each country. They are not a census or a civil register: they are a snapshot of where a surname is found today, useful for pointing a genealogical search in the right direction and for understanding how a family moved. When there is not enough data for a surname, the page says so instead of inventing it.
