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Surnames in Texas: a population study through isonymy
A Rodriguez-Larralde1, C Scapoli, E Mamolini
1Centro de Medicina Experimental, Laboratorio de Genetica Humana, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela.
Human Biology
|November 22, 2007
Summary
Surname distribution in Texas reveals significant geographic patterns. While regional surname distances show weak correlation with geography, town-level analysis highlights distinct East-West differentiation, with West Texas showing higher inbreeding and Hispanic influence.
Area of Science:
- Population Genetics
- Human Geography
- Sociolinguistics
Background:
- Isonymy, the study of surname distributions, offers insights into population structure and migration patterns.
- Understanding surname correlations with geographic and linguistic factors is crucial for historical and demographic studies.
- Texas, with its diverse cultural and geographic landscape, provides a unique setting for such an analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the isonymy structure of Texas using surname data from 1996.
- To analyze the correlation between isonymy distances and geographic distances at both regional and town levels.
- To identify patterns of surname differentiation and their relationship with linguistic and ethnic distributions across Texas.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of surname distributions from 3.6 million telephone users across 232 towns in Texas.
- Construction of isonymy distance matrices (Lasker's, Euclidean, Nei's) between towns and regions.
- Correlation analysis with geographic distance and construction of dendrograms based on Nei's distances.
Main Results:
- Isonymy distances between Texas regions showed weak correlation with geographic distance.
- Isonymy distances between towns were significantly correlated with geographic distance.
- Dendrograms revealed a primary surname differentiation between East (English-speaking) and West (Hispanic) Texas, with higher random inbreeding (FST) in the West and South.
- Fisher's alpha diversity was lower in the West and higher in the East and Gulf Coast regions.
Conclusions:
- Surname distribution in Texas reflects significant geographic and linguistic differentiation, particularly between East and West.
- Town-level isonymy is more strongly influenced by geography than regional-level isonymy.
- The findings suggest historical migration and settlement patterns contributing to current population genetic structure.
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