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Facts about USA
Ancestry...
Study of Last Name
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Do You Come From
Royal Blood? Your Last
Name May Tell You.
According to a new
study of unique last
names from around
the world, moving in
or out of the upper
class doesn’t take
just a few
generations — it
takes centuries.
Measuring not just
income and wealth
but also occupation,
education, and
longevity,
researchers found
that upper-class
families took 300 to
450 years before
their scions fell
back into the middle
class. Throughout
society, poor
families, taken as a
whole, took an equal
amount of time — 10
to 15 generations —
to work their way up
into the middle
class.
Researchers at the
University of
California, Davis,
and the London
School of Economics
conducted the study,
which they published
in the journal
“Human Nature.”
The social
scientists looked
for those and other
unique, upper-class
surnames among
students who
attended Oxford and
Cambridge
universities between
1170 and 2012, rich
property owners
between 1236 and
1299, as well as
probate records
since 1858 — which
are available on
Ancestry.com.
Moving Up Slowly
They found that
social mobility in
late medieval
England wasn’t any
worse than in modern
England. Illiterate
village artisans in
1300 took seven
generations to
incorporate fully
into the educated
elite of 1500.
Conversely, if you
died between 1999
and 2012 and had one
of the 181 rare
surnames of wealthy
families in the
mid-19th century,
you were more than
three times as
wealthy as the
average person.
Researchers aren’t
sure why social
mobility appears to
move so slowly,
despite outside
political and social
forces, and suspect
genetics may play a
role.
Rich Americans
The United States
isn’t even old
enough yet to test
the researchers’
theory. But that
hasn’t stopped many
observers from
identifying certain
surnames that
connote wealth in
the United States.
For example, about
100 Mellons are
alive today sharing
$12 billion, the
fruit of a bank
their forefather
Andrew W. Mellon
founded in the
mid-1800s. The
several hundred
living members of
the Rockefellers
share $10 billion in
wealth that started
when John D.
Rockefeller founded
Standard Oil in
1870.
With just $1
billion, the Kennedy
family’s wealth is
eclipsed by the
assets of less
romantic family
dynasties (the
wealthiest family in
the world, the
Waltons, trace their
riches to the
founding of Wal-Mart
in 1962), but the 30
Kennedy heirs live
with a name
associated with
America’s Camelot.
Time will tell how
long it takes those
heirs to end up
driving a cab. In
the meantime, if you
have a unique
surname, or even if
your last name is
Smith, Ancestry can
help you find out
where your ancestors
worked, how well
they were educated,
and how long they
lived — all signs,
according to
researchers, of
their place in the
social hierarchy.
— Sandie Angulo Chen
Discover the
meaning and history
behind your last name.
Ancestry
