China Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Balls and Bottoms give way to Wangs in name game LONDON (Reuters) – The number of people in Britain with surnames like ****shott, 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 **** 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 ****shotts 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 changed their surnames as they came to be regarded as in bad taste. "It's because the meaning of words can change. Take the name Daft -- that as a term for a stupid is a relatively recent innovation." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Daft meant "mild" or "meek" in Old English, whereas it means "foolish" today. "That's why there are names which people think aren't really very pleasant names and you wonder why they persisted as long as they did." Webber, whose work can be seen on the website mapyourname.com, got his data for 2008 from credit card firm Experian and mapping service Geowise. He then compared it with the census of 1881. Click on the link for the full article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Touchdown Redskins Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 The number of people in Britain with surnames like ****shott, Balls, Death and Shufflebottom -- likely the source of schoolroom laughter -- has declined by up to 75 percent in the last century. This sentence made me very sad . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 The professor's name is Dick Webber. And yes I do have the sense of humor of a 5th grader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsluggo Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 At one point, the name of my wife's immediate boss was Long Yang, and his supervisor was Dick Johnson... and I was the only one to snicker. whats the matter with this generation? edit.... btw... I had typed s-n-i-g-g-e-r but it got xx-ed out... that is a legitimate word, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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