This Website Guesses Where Your Family Originated Based On Your Surname
What’s in a name?
Quite a lot actually, according to a new online service that can pinpoint your origins just from your surname.
The “Named” project, developed by the University College London, can tell you where you are from with just your family moniker.
Researchers at the university department of geography have come up with a website and accompanying app that can tell you all about, well, you.
It used information from the Consumer Data Research Centre to show where a surname is most popular in the UK.
When users type in their surname, an algorithm generates a heat map to show how common it is.
UCL data scientist Oliver O'Brien wrote on his blog: “I put together the website and adapted for the UK some code on generating heat maps showing regions of unusual popularity of a surname.
“We are only in the early stages of evaluating the validity or accuracy of this method – we know it works well for certain regional UK names which are not too popular or too rare, at least.”
In addition, Named claims to be able to predict where a couple met if it is fed both their surnames.
Click HERE to try to find your origins.
(Picture: Named/UCL)
