Tuesday, March 31, 2009

From the UK What a Hoot!


The number of people in Britain with amusing surnames like Cockshott, Balls, Death and Shufflebottom has declined by up to 75 percent in the last century - as people with silly names either fail to pass them on to the next generation, or leave the country entirely.

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.

Wangs, however, have experienced dramatic growth.

2 comments:

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

It´s a shame :-) When Britts give up their old names who will then have them :-) Can see my self being Christer Shufflebottom :-) :-)
Have a nice day now!
Christer.

Zoey and Me said...

Yes, Mr Shufflebottom. God that's funny. Modern times has probably made life miserable for those with the namesakes in this story.