This weeks Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge at Genea-Musings is “Surname Distribution.” I decided to use the World Names Profiler that Randy Seaver provide a link to to see how my surname, Lassalle, was distributed throughtout the countries in this database.
My family used the spelling Lassalle with two S’s, which completely throws off everyone on the face of the planet who I come in contact with. As far back as 1800, the double S is in place.
The World Names Profiler database shows that the highest concentration of Lassalle’s is in France. That is no surprise since it’s primarily a French surname.
I checked the North American map first. California, where my Grandfather settled, is white–not a very high concentration of Lassalle’s there. Lassalle shows up the most in Quebec, Canada and a handful of US States. All areas are pale green.
Just for kicks, I put in the spelling LaSalle. Quebec is dark, dark blue. But no US states shows that kind of distribution.
I wanted to see where my surname appears in France. In France, the surname Lassalle is in full force in two regions: Aquitaine and Midi Pyrenees. My Grandfather was from Ogeu les bains, which sits in Midi-Pyrenees. Fancy that!
To sum up, my surname appears the most in France (121.84 FPM). The roots of my surname is Greek. What surprised me is the country with the second highest distribution is Argentina. I wonder if I have cousins who migrated to South American rather than North America?
After playing with that, I click on the Midi Pyrenees from the Top Regions list. This brought up another search screen. I entered Ogeu les bains and was given a list of the most common forenames and surnames. Here they are…
Top Forenames:
Jean
Pierre
Rene
Marie
Henri
Jacques
Michel
Joseph
Marcel
Dominique
Top Surnames:
Arriuberge
Sindicq
Carrey
Berges
Claverie
Dies
Pucheu
Arribe
Capdeville
Courreges
I have Claverie (married in) and Capdeville in my tree.
This was interesting. I found that my surname is most common in the place where my ancestors originated from. But, it is not one of the most common surnames from their native town.
You know that I will be trying other surnames 😉
