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A website which maps global surnames has been launched to help people find the origins of their name and how far it may have spread. The Public Profiler site plots eight million last names using data from electoral rolls and phone directories. The site covers 300 million people in 26 countries, showing the origins of names and where families have moved to. David Beckham, for example, has an English name, but there are more Beckhams in the US than Britain. But the region of the world with the highest concentration of people called Beckham was even further from the footballer's...

The website that lets you find out where your family came from online Last updated at 02:23am on 30.08.08  Ever wondered where in the world you can find the most Crooks, Cranks and Losers?  Or, come to that, the places overrun by people called Smith or Jones?  Well, wonder no more. A website launched today can tell you everything you could possibly want to know about surnames  -  unusual or otherwise.   Pure Klass: Myleene   It uses more than one billion records to show which countries, regions and cities have the greatest concentrations of a given surname. Simply...

I started doing genealogy research in the late 90's/early 00's. Only recently have I taken it back up and registered on Ancestry.com to see what new info has popped up. In the last day or so I came across a distant relative. They gave me access to their family tree and I noticed they have a little boy born last year. His last name is a combo of both parents. Just for example if one of the parent's name was Jones and one of the parent's name was Smith it would be Smones or Jomith. I have no information about...

Swedish tax authorities have informed a couple in Stockholm that they may not keep the name Elvis for their five-month old daughter.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - It may not be kosher, but the Hoopoe was chosen Thursday as Israel's national bird. The Hoopoe, or "Duchifat" in Hebrew, is listed in the Old Testament as unclean and forbidden food for Jews. President Shimon Peres declared the pink, black and white-crested bird the winner of a competition timed to coincide with Israel's 60th anniversary. It beat out rivals such as the Yellow-vented Bulbul and the Palestine Sunbird. The Book of Leviticus groups the Hoopoe with birds such as the eagle, vulture and pelican that are "abhorrent, not to be eaten." Israel is a main crossroads...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Emily again topped the list of most popular baby girl names last year, registering as No. 1 for the 12th straight time. Jacob led among names for boys for the ninth year in a row. New parents didn't stray far from past habits in 2007 when naming their babies. Only one name — Elizabeth — is new to the top-10 list, returning after a two-year absence. Samantha, which previously ranked 10th, dropped to No. 12, according to the latest list released Saturday by the Social Security Administration. Biblical names continued to dominate the boys' list. Besides Jacob,...

Bo (woof) In Commentary: Much like our owners, we don’t have much input in selecting our names. At least we’re getting closer to being named as if we were a member of the larger family than in days gone by. I can’t complain about my name, but my sister may have a beef since I haven’t heard of many kids named Copper. Here’s an article on trends in dog names based on surveying owners in the bay area of SanFrancisco. (They’re not just Fluffy, Rover and Fido anymore. As dog and cat ownership has expanded to nearly 2 out of...

WASHINGTON, May 7, 2008 – The names of four U.S. servicemembers were etched into the glossy black walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial this week alongside more than 58,000 of their fallen comrades. Finishing the addition today was the name of Raymond C. Mason, a Marine lance corporal who died a year ago as a result of ailing health stemming from a bullet wound that paralyzed him in February 1968 during the Tet Offensive. In a ceremony at the wall here, Mason’s widow, Priscilla Mason, watched as an engraver inched a sandblaster over the Marine’s stenciled name with surgeonlike precision....

MIGRANTS who come to the UK are abandoning more than just their homeland. Thousands of new arrivals are adopting common British names to avoid discrimination or just poor pronunciation. Arabic names such as Karim and Muhammad are being changed to Kevin and Michael, while Indians bearing the surname Shital prefer to be known as Sheet. The trend is part of a boom in name changing, fuelled by websites that allow people legally to rename themselves by deed poll within a few hours, usually for about £30. Chinese people have anglicised their names by adding prefixes such as John, Jason and...

Jefferson attorneys request to use names Attorneys for Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, are asking Virginia District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III to give them permission to refer to the real names of business executives and Nigerian leaders alluded to in the Justice Department's 16-count indictment of the congressman by pseudonyms such as "Businessperson A," "Businessperson DEF," "Nigerian Official A" and other similar references. Many of the names have already been deciphered through a government list of unindicted co-conspirators and there's no longer any reason for secrecy because the grand jury investigating the congressman has returned its indictment, Jefferson's attorneys...

BEIJING (AP) - Blog service providers in China are "encouraged" to register users with their real names and contact information, according to a new government document that tones down an earlier proposal banning anonymous online blogging. At least 10 major Chinese blog service providers have agreed to sign the "self-discipline pledge" issued by the Internet Society of China, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. Online bulletin boards and blogs are the only forum for most Chinese to express opinions before a large audience in a society where all media are state-controlled. China has the world's second-biggest population of Internet...

This is a good site for browsing thru cute kitty pictures but this time it has the names of the puds right there with the pictures! So many times we rack our brains and come up with nothing ... finally resorting to Baby Name books ! So, peruse. Use. Or not. But add the names of your own cookie-pies? So we can all have a pool of names with which to consult should we run across that extra little mouth to feed in the sometime future and be forced to face The Dilemma once again.

A Calgary woman waiting for her husband to arrive in Canada is upset by a long-standing immigration policy that forces people with the surname Singh or Kaur to change their last names. Tarvinder Kaur, who is pregnant, said her husband Jaspal Singh's application to become a permanent resident has been delayed for well over a month because of his last name. He has no choice but to legally change his name in India so he can get to Calgary before she gives birth next month, she said. CBC News has obtained a copy of a letter sent from the Canadian...

Bill would help groom become Mr. Missus Oregon - A senator introduces an amendment to make it easier for a man to take his wife's surname Tuesday, June 05, 2007 RYAN KOST You've heard of women's lib. Now, state Sen. Vicki Walker wants to introduce you to men's lib. The Eugene Democrat tagged an amendment onto a routine housekeeping bill that she hopes will help men who want to change their names when they marry, but aren't really sure how. Under Walker's amendment, the application for marriage licenses would be redesigned to make room for a little box where...

THE LIST Names for collectors May 23, 2007 There are a number of special names for people who collect things: Archtophilist: a person who collects teddy bears Bibliophilist: collects books Brandophilist: collects cigar bands Conchologist: collects shells Deltiologist: collects postcards Lepidopterist: collects butterflies Numismatist: collects coins Philatelist: collects stamps Philographist: collects autographs Plangonologist: collects dolls Receptarist: collects recipes Vexillologist: collects flags SOURCE: FACTMONSTER.COM

Residents of Canada's Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Cheapside Street, Ragged Ass Road and Bastard Ward consider yourselves warned: There is a small but noteworthy negative effect between a badly named street and the perceived market value of homes or businesses that reside on it, experts say. "People attach values [to addresses] and pay a premium," said Murtaza Haider, a business professor and director of Ryerson University's Institute of Housing and Mobility. Mr. Haider recently analyzed the property values of 300 homes near Toronto's posh Bloor Street. Controlling for size, he found that having Bloor in the physical address added a...

Research shows that girls with 'feminine' names steer clear of 'masculine' maths and scienceParents are being warned to think long and hard when choosing names for their babies as research has discovered that girls who are given very feminine names, such as Anna, Emma or Elizabeth, are less likely to study maths or physics after the age of 16, a remarkable study has found. Both subjects, which are traditionally seen as predominantly male, are far more popular among girls with names such as Abigail, Lauren and Ashley, which have been judged as less feminine in a linguistic test. The effect...

My husband and I are expecting fraternal twin boys in March, and we have reached the stage of discussing names. My husband is a small-L libertarian, while I am more conservative, but we agree that we would like to give our sons names to live up to. (For instance, we are seriously looking at Washington, Jefferson and Franklin as middle names, since we like the idea of giving the boys the names of some of our most important and admirable founding fathers.) We are also fans of history, particularly the Roman era, and would be interested in considering names of...

If you are trying to track down someone named Chen Jie in Shanghai, you may need a little extra help. According to official statistics, it is the city's most popular name and is currently shared by 3,937 people. It combines a common surname - Chen - with a popular character - Jie - which means clean or pure. According to residents, the prevalence of the name is leading to confusion with school registrations and bank accounts. One Chen Jie told the Shanghai Daily that she kept getting another woman's letters. "Every time I have to pass the letters to...

How British names conquered the world By Charles Clover (Filed: 31/08/2006) The biggest concentration of people called Salt is in Stoke-on-Trent, as is the greatest number of people called Pepper, according to a new study which maps the spread of British names across the globe. The number of people with either surname is roughly equal so the reason for this is likely to be that both Salts and Peppers derived their names from people who made pots for condiments in the Potteries, according to the authors of the study, published at the Royal Geographical Society's annual conference yesterday. What the...

LONDON - The Bank of England froze the assets of 19 people early Friday, naming them as people arrested Thursday in connection with an alleged terror plot to bomb British passenger jets. "On the advice of the police and security services, the Treasury has instructed the Bank of England to issue notices to effect a freeze of the assets of a number of individuals arrested in yesterday's operations," a Treasury statement said. Most of those named in the list were London residents, and many bore Muslim names. Scotland Yard had no immediate comment. The bank released the following names: Abdula...

WASHINGTON - A Texas Indian tribe filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and their associates engaged in fraud and racketeering to shut down the tribe's casino. The Alabama-Coushatta tribe of Livingston, Texas, alleged the defendants defrauded the tribe, the people of Texas and the Legislature to benefit another of Abramoff's clients — the Louisiana Coushatta tribe — and "line their pockets with money." "Ultimately, the defendants' greed and corruption led to the Alabama-Coushatta tribe permanently shutting its casino. The funding for economic programs evaporated, over 300 jobs were lost in...

Washington, D.C. ­– Today, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) introduced the Consumers Having Options in Cable Entertainment (CHOICE) Act of 2006. The bill is designed to encourage broadcasters and cable companies that own cable channels to sell their channels individually to subscribers. It also promotes cable channel distribution over the Internet. Attached are Senator McCain’s floor statement that was submitted for the record today, a copy of the bill, the bill summary, and a copy of the of the opinion editorial by Senator McCain and FCC Chairman Martin as it appeared in the Los Angeles Times on May 25, 2006.

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger filled a dormant state commission with four Democrats on Friday before asking them to approve a $1-an-hour minimum wage increase without the annual cost-of-living adjustments pushed by Democratic lawmakers. Two of the four were originally appointed to the Industrial Welfare Commission by former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and served until their terms expired last year. The two others were new appointments by the Republican governor, one of them representing the state manufacturer's association. A fifth commissioner's term expires in January. Schwarzenegger, who vetoed two previous minimum wage increases, is asking the commission to increase the minimum...

Chances are you don't have any friends named Nevaeh. Chances are today's toddlers will. In 1999, there were only eight newborn American girls named Nevaeh. Last year, it was the 70th-most-popular name for baby girls, ahead of Sara, Vanessa and Amanda. The spectacular rise of Nevaeh (commonly pronounced na-VAY-uh) has little precedent, name experts say. They watched it break into the top 1,000 of girls' names in 2001 at No. 266, the third-highest debut ever. Four years later it cracked the top 100 with 4,457 newborn Nevaehs, having made the fastest climb among all names since the government started keeping...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday named a former aide to Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Steve Westly as head of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Linda Adams, 57, a Democrat from Sacramento with a long history in state government, will come out of retirement to lead the agency at a time when the Schwarzenegger administration is advancing its initiative to reduce greenhouse gases in the state. "This was an opportunity I could not pass up," Adams said in an interview with The Associated Press. "There is so much going on in the area of climate change and global warming." Adams worked in...

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2006 – Defense officials today released 201 more names of detainees at the U.S. facility at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The list released today includes the names of 759 detainees who are or were held at the U.S. detention facility for war on terrorism detainees. The department first released 558 of these names April 19. Those 558 names were of detainees who had gone through the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process, implemented in July 2004 to give detainees a forum to contest their designation as enemy combatants. "This approximately 200 didn't attend a CSRT because they...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bottlenose dolphins can call each other by name when they whistle, making them the only animals besides humans known to recognize such identity information, scientists reported on Monday. Scientists have long known that dolphins' whistling calls include repeated information thought to be their names, but a new study indicates dolphins recognize these names even when voice cues are removed from the sound. For example, a dolphin might be expected to recognize its name if called by its mother, but the new study found most dolphins recognized names -- their signature whistles -- even when emitted without inflection...

WASHINGTON - Never will Katrina be so little missed. Nor Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma - four other hurricane names from last year's devastating storms that have now been officially retired. Normally six lists of names are used in rotation for storms in the Atlantic-Caribbean-Gulf of Mexico region, but names of particularly destructive storms are retired. The decision to retire these five names was made by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization meeting in Puerto Rico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. They were part of a record 27 named storms and 15 hurricanes that occurred in...

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter has named the Navy's newest Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) – Independence. “Independence, along with USS Freedom, are going to be great 21st century ships. Their speed and agility are widely recognized. I believe that their modular approach yields tremendous flexibility for employing these ships and for taking the fight right to the enemy’s shoreline," Winter said. The name Independence recognizes the cornerstone of our nation’s foundation that so many Americans have fought and died to ensure. Five previous ships have also had that name. The first Independence was a 10-gun...

Strengthening relations between wartime allies basis for naming latest US Virginia class after British Princess. A long, black submarine lurks beneath the ocean waves, carrying a full arsenal of ship-killing weapons. No other class of warship can find it, fight it, or even defend against it. If current US military planners have their way, the latest of these fearsome weapons will be named the USS Princess Diana. "We have a destroyer named after Winston Churchill, and the 72nd Secretary of the Navy was named England (Gordon England), why can't we honor the late Princess Diana with the power and majesty...

Someone needs to sit our people down and have a healthy discussion about the names we as African Americans are giving our children. We are hurting our kids and putting their futures in peril from the moment they are born. That’s right, I said it. We are KILLING our kids and crippling their futures with the names we give them. Don’t you want your kids to get JOBS someday? Good jobs, and serious careers? With a name like Jaquez Ja’Quan Diante’, you’re dooming your sons to a life of drug dealing on some seedy street corner. Our Black men face...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2006 – DoD has released 317 "unredacted" records on detainees being held at the U.S. facility in U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The records, containing about 5,000 pages, are being released as part of an Associated Press Freedom of Information Act litigation decided in late January. A federal judge in New York ordered DoD release records of combatant status review tribunals and administrative review board summaries to the Associated Press by March 3. Those documents were originally provided to AP, but with names and identifying information redacted for privacy reasons, as part of a Freedom of...

US terror watchlist 80,000 names long Thu Dec 8,10:59 AM ET STOCKHOLM (AFP) - A watchlist of possible terror suspects distributed by the US government to airlines for pre-flight checks is now 80,000 names long, a Swedish newspaper reported, citing European air industry sources. The classified list, which carried just 16 names before the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington had grown to 1,000 by the end of 2001, to 40,000 a year later and now stands at 80,000, Svenska Dagbladet reported. Airlines must check each passenger flying to a US destination against the list, and contact...

Terror Victims' Names Released, IDF Mulling Reponse 19:19 Dec 05, '05 / 4 Kislev 5766 By Ezra HaLevi Those killed in Monday’s attack are Alexander Zarnitzky, 65, from Netanya, Ilya Rosen, 38, from Bat Chefer, Daniel Golani, 45, from Nahariya and security guard Chaim Amram, 26, from Netanya. The name of the fifth victim in the deadly bombing has not yet been released. Residents of Netanya gathered at the site of the attack Monday evening to protest the security situation and perceived rewarding of Arab terrorism by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Defense Minister Sha’ul Mofaz, after consulting with IDF and...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday took the first step to shaking up his administration after his resounding special election failure, appointing a longtime Democratic activist as his chief of staff. The move to replace Patricia Clarey had been widely expected since voters defeated all four of the governor's "year of reform" measures Nov. 8. Clary was campaign manager for the effort. But the announcement of state Public Utilities Commissioner Susan Kennedy as Clarey's replacement caught many Republicans and Democrats off guard. Kennedy was Cabinet secretary to former Gov. Gray Davis, who was ousted in the 2003...

If your name is Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cruz Bustamante or even Warren Beatty, California voters may not think much of you, but at least they know enough to have an opinion. But if you're Joe Dunn, Debra Bowen or Charles Poochigian, toiling away for years in the Legislature apparently has done little to record you in the minds of most, according to a new Field Poll. As the field shapes up for seven partisan statewide offices at stake in next year's elections, most hopefuls face a long path to reach voters' collective consciousness, and even longer to win their hearts and...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia appointed his half-brother on Saturday to head his Gulf country's general intelligence forces, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. The post has been vacant since King Fahd, before his death in August, accepted the resignation of the former chief of the intelligence, Prince Nawaf bin Abdel Aziz, for health reasons. The new intelligence chief, Prince Mogrin bin Abdel Aziz, 60, has served as a Saudi Air Force pilot and governor of the holy city of Medina. Last week, Abdullah signed a decree forming the National Security Council, which will be in...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis was embroiled in a raging controversy over why he left out the names of key Syrian suspects from his final report on the murder of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafiq Hariri. Mehlis, who led a four-month UN probe into the massive bomb blast that killed Hariri and 20 others in Beirut in February, handed over his report to UN chief Kofi Annan on Thursday. The report was also sent to the 15 members of the UN Security Council and the Lebanese government before being made public. The document cited "converging evidence" of Syrian...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The names of Syrian President Bashar Assad's brother and brother-in-law and other top Syrians were edited out of the final report of a U.N. investigation as helping to plot the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, U.N. diplomats said Friday. Germany prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, who led the U.N. probe, told a hastily called news conference that he decided to delete the names when he learned Thursday morning the report would be made public because the Syrians had only been identified by a witness interviewed by his investigators. Since their alleged involvement had not been corroborated,...

Some FReepers have nicks that are obvious in their origin, others don't. I've seen several that probably have interesting stories behind them.I thought it would be cool to see where FReepers get their handles from. If you don't like this topic, DON'T POST HERE! No one forces you to read this. I'm sure other people may be interested. If I'm the only one, let me know so I can crawl away in shame.

GENEVA (AFP) - Coal-fired power stations in Greece, Germany and Spain top a new table of Europe's dirtiest electricity plants, the environmental group WWF International said. In its new "Dirty Thirty" ranking of power station pollution in the European Union, WWF said Greece's Agios Dimitrios plant was the worst, followed closely by Frimmersdorf in Germany and Abono in Spain. It ranked plants across the 25-nation EU according to their efficiency -- a calculation based on the number of grammes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per Kilowatt hour of electricity generated. CO2 is the biggest of the greenhouse gases that trap...

British Office Compiles List of Odd Names 28 minutes ago LONDON - Horatio Hornblower is an odd name, but consider his siblings: Azubia, Constantia, Jecoliah, Jedidah, Jerusha and Erastus. Rene Jackaman, archive assistant at Cornwall County Record Office, found all those names after coming across a real-life namesake of C.S. Forester's fictional naval hero in county census records. The Hornblower name has been on record for centuries. Inspired by that discovery, staff and researchers at the Cornwall Record Office compiled a list of more than 1,000 unusual names found in censuses as well as in births, deaths and marriage records...

Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 23 -- Baby Names. BABY NAMES: Girls, by income- Most Popular High-End White Girl Names in the 1990s 1. Alexandra 2. Lauren 3. Katherine 4. Madison 5. Rachel Most Popular Low-End White Girl Names in the 1990s 1. Amber 2. Heather 3. Kayla 4. Stephanie 5. Alyssa Boys, by income- Most Popular High-End White Boy Names 1. Benjamin 2. Samuel 3. Jonathan 4. Alexander 5. Andrew Most Popular Low-End White Boy Names 1. Cody 2. Brandon 3. Anthony 4. Justin 5. Robert WHITEST AND BLACKEST GIRL NAMES- The 20 Whitest Girl Names 1. Molly...

NEW YORK - A federal judge considering whether the government should be forced to reveal the identities of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base detainees suggested Friday that each one be asked whether he wants his name made public. Judge Jed S. Rakoff offered the idea as he considered the government's position that the United States must hide the identities to protect the detainees and their family members from potential reprisals. If asked, "that person may be saying, `Yes, please, tell the world,'" Rakoff told Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Wolstein. Wolstein said there might be "military reasons" for not engaging in such...

SOMERSET, Mass. (AP) - Ten power plants in the Northeast last year produced a third of the region's carbon dioxide emissions, considered a major contributor to global warming, according to a report released Tuesday by a coalition of environmental groups. Brayton Point Station, a predominantly coal-fired plant in Somerset, was the top carbon dioxide emitter, the report said. The report said Brayton Point released 5.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air in 2004, representing nearly 5 percent of the total released in the nine-state region. Two other Massachusetts power plants also were included on the list, along...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday added more new judges to Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, including a San Jose lawyer who has been instrumental in the city's legal strategy toward fighting gangs. The governor named Carol Overton, a senior San Jose deputy city attorney who has worked at City Hall for the past 18 years, to Santa Clara County Superior Court. He also named Franklin Bondonno, a Los Gatos environmental lawyer, to a Santa Clara judgeship, filling the vacancy created when former Superior Court Judge William Danser was ousted as a result of his criminal conviction in a ticket-fixing...

Magician Penn Jillette a father to Moxie CrimeFighter NEW YORK — Comedian/magician Penn Jillette's has a new sidekick — a baby girl. Jillette, 50, and his wife Emily, 39, welcomed 6-pound, 6-ounce Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette on Friday, according to publicist Glenn Schwartz. It was the first child for the couple, who married last year. "We chose her middle name because when she's pulled over for speeding she can say, 'But officer, we're on the same side,'" Jillette explained. "'My middle name is CrimeFighter.'" His show sidekick — the typically mute Teller — had no comment on the new arrival. Penn...

The opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield this month can become the launch for an initiative to change the name of Illinois to that of the State of Abraham Lincoln. I'm serious. Few in the world know what or where Illinois is. Some have heard of Chicago. Yet the world knows Abraham Lincoln--the Great Emancipator; the rock who kept our Union of diverse peoples from fragmenting; the homespun, virtuous, self-educated man of the heartland; a hero, indeed, to all in the world who yearn to be free. In contrast, our citizens have never really resonated...

 the dismal scienceA Roshanda by Any Other NameHow do babies with super-black names fare?By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. DubnerPosted Monday, April 11, 2005, at 3:32 AM PT <SNIP>These are the sort of questions that led to "The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names," a research paper written by a white economist (Steven Levitt, a co-author of this article) and a black economist (Roland G. Fryer Jr., a young Harvard scholar who studies race). The paper acknowledged the social and economic gulf between blacks and whites but paid particular attention to the gulf between black and white culture....