Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Microevolution in Ferrara: isonymy 1890-1990.

I Barrai1, G Formica, C Scapoli

  • 1Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Ferrara.

Annals of Human Biology
|July 1, 1992
PubMed
Summary

Surname diversity in Ferrara increased significantly between 1890 and 1990. Older populations showed higher surname redundancy, indicating a historical shift towards greater surname richness over time.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Highly conserved bifidobacteria in the human gut: Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum as a potential modulator of elderly innate immunity.

Beneficial microbes·2024
Same author

Longitudinal changes in bifidobacterial population during the first two years of life.

Beneficial microbes·2024
Same author

Extreme disparities in the access to outpatient treatment for COVID-19 observed at a tertiary hospital in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

Public health·2023
Same author

Necrodes littoralis (Coleoptera: Silphidae) visiting and breeding on a carcass in Italy.

Tropical biomedicine·2022
Same author

Development and validation of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound systems for highly controlled in vitro cell stimulation.

Ultrasonics·2021
Same author

Fine Structure of Maxillary Palps in Adults of Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae).

Journal of medical entomology·2020

Area of Science:

  • Demographic studies
  • Population genetics
  • Sociolinguistics

Background:

  • Analyzing surname distribution provides insights into population structure and historical migration patterns.
  • Understanding surname diversity is crucial for demographic and genetic studies.

Observation:

  • Surname distribution in Ferrara was analyzed by sex, age, and place of birth in 1990.
  • Random isonymy (shared surnames) was studied across different birth cohorts, from before 1901 to 1981-90.
  • Ecological indexes derived from entropy were calculated to assess surname abundance and redundancy.

Findings:

  • Isonymy and redundancy were higher in older age groups, suggesting greater surname concentration in earlier generations.
  • The effective number of surnames, calculated as the inverse of isonymy corrected for sample size, was found to be similar to Fisher's alpha.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Fisher's alpha significantly increased over the 1890-1990 period, indicating a substantial enrichment of surnames in the Ferrara population.

    • Implications:

    • The findings suggest a demographic shift towards greater surname diversity in Ferrara over the last century.
    • This enrichment of surnames may reflect changing social dynamics, migration, or naming practices.
    • The study provides a quantitative method for tracking changes in population diversity through surname analysis.