Jones

[elster]

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

[ipwn]

Wales,

population 2.9 million
number of surnames .... 2

[TheEnd]

I'm sure there are some other places round the UK that seem to have surnames that never leave the area, Newcastle was one, but i can't think of the ones that led me to think that way.

[jmorgan]

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

[chukka64]

curiously though, scotland had a couple of Evans.

[Shaw Tarse]

Jones The Steam?
Ivor the engine?

[elster]

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

Thanks. Never knew that.

Don't suppose you know at what period this was all done?

[maser_spyder]

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

'Fault of the English'

I lived in Wales for 7 years, and can honestly say, if you ever want to hear tales of woe with a chip on shoulder, it's the place to be. I was in a supermarket one day and overheard a little boy asking him mother why they spoke English and not Welsh. 'Because the tyrant English' was an much of the reply as I heard....

It's one of the reasons I moved away. Get over it.

[Saddle bum]

ipwn said:

Wales,

population 2.9 million
another 10 million around the world singing about it

EFA

[anonymous-user]

For what it's worth, I'm Welsh and my surname is Jones

[Sheets Tabuer]

Not forgetting Davies/davis etc

[lazy_b]

elster said:

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

Thanks. Never knew that.

Don't suppose you know at what period this was all done?

I think it was some time around the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (sometimes called the Acts of Union), when Henry VII sent his clerks into Wales to conduct a census. As each man was called to name himself, he would do so in the Welsh way by reciting his lineage for several generations - for example, "Dafydd ap Sion ap Huw ap..." and so on (David, son of John, son of Hugh, son of...), or "Gwyn ap Sion ap Ifan ap..." (Gwyn, son of John, son of Evan, son of...). The English clerks simply wrote down the man's given name and father's name, so we ended up with lots of unrelated people with the same surname, like the David Jones and Gwyn Jones above.

Edited by lazy_b on Saturday 21st March 21:47

[elster]

lazy_b said:

elster said:

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

Thanks. Never knew that.

Don't suppose you know at what period this was all done?

I think it was some time around the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (sometimes called the Acts of Union), when Henry VII sent his clerks into Wales to conduct a census. As each man was called to name himself, he would do so in the Welsh way by reciting his lineage for several generations - for example, "Dafydd ap Sion ap Huw ap..." and so on (David, son of John, son of Hugh, son of...), or "Gwyn ap Sion ap Ifan ap..." (Gwyn, son of John, son of Evan, son of...). The English clerks simply wrote down the man's given name and father's name, so we ended up with lots of unrelated people with the same surname, like the David Jones and Gwyn Jones above.

Edited by lazy_b on Saturday 21st March 21:47

Cheers. Will have a read up.

[Brown and Boris]

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

Is that true?

The Jones surname was first documented in 1279 in Huntingdonshire, England.[1][2] Its popularity in Wales stems from the use of Ioan in the Welsh Authorised Version of the Bible. Ioan is used here for Ieuan, the Welsh form of John.[3]

In 1813-1841, there were about 85,000 people named Jones living in England (0.43% of the population) and about 145,000 people named Jones living in Wales (13.84% of the total population) [4][5][6] By 1881, migration to the urban centres of England had equalised the numbers so that both countries had a little over 163,000 people named Jones recorded in the census of that year. Even so, it shows some areas of North Wales still had very high proportions of people carrying the name, for example in Sir Feirionnydd (Merionethshire) 23.6% and Sir Gaernarfon (Caernarfonshire) 22.3% were named Jones compared with 10.4% in Wales as a whole and 0.67% in England. Other, more readily identifiable Welsh names, such as Lloyd and Price (from ap Rhys), had greater proportions of their numbers living in England than Wales in 1881 - this may be because of the relatively higher concentrations of Jones in Welsh speaking areas.

[jmorgan]

elster said:

lazy_b said:

elster said:

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

Thanks. Never knew that.

Don't suppose you know at what period this was all done?

I think it was some time around the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (sometimes called the Acts of Union), when Henry VII sent his clerks into Wales to conduct a census. As each man was called to name himself, he would do so in the Welsh way by reciting his lineage for several generations - for example, "Dafydd ap Sion ap Huw ap..." and so on (David, son of John, son of Hugh, son of...), or "Gwyn ap Sion ap Ifan ap..." (Gwyn, son of John, son of Evan, son of...). The English clerks simply wrote down the man's given name and father's name, so we ended up with lots of unrelated people with the same surname, like the David Jones and Gwyn Jones above.

Edited by lazy_b on Saturday 21st March 21:47

Cheers. Will have a read up.

Aye, what he said. Interesting program on Radio Wales a while ago on it. It had been going on slowly and some influential families had started a good while prior.

[jmorgan]

Brown and Boris said:

jmorgan said:

elster said:

Why are there so many Jones' in Wales?

After the starting line up of the Welsh line up of 6 starting.

Why is it not like other countries where there is a vast array of Surnames?

I am asking this out of curiosity, not to know about suspected inbreeding.

All the fault of the English. A good few hundred years or so ago. They did not like dealing with the Welsh way of surnames at the time. So Jones and Thomas etc were foisted on us.

You did ask.

Is that true?

The Jones surname was first documented in 1279 in Huntingdonshire, England.[1][2] Its popularity in Wales stems from the use of Ioan in the Welsh Authorised Version of the Bible. Ioan is used here for Ieuan, the Welsh form of John.[3]

In 1813-1841, there were about 85,000 people named Jones living in England (0.43% of the population) and about 145,000 people named Jones living in Wales (13.84% of the total population) [4][5][6] By 1881, migration to the urban centres of England had equalised the numbers so that both countries had a little over 163,000 people named Jones recorded in the census of that year. Even so, it shows some areas of North Wales still had very high proportions of people carrying the name, for example in Sir Feirionnydd (Merionethshire) 23.6% and Sir Gaernarfon (Caernarfonshire) 22.3% were named Jones compared with 10.4% in Wales as a whole and 0.67% in England. Other, more readily identifiable Welsh names, such as Lloyd and Price (from ap Rhys), had greater proportions of their numbers living in England than Wales in 1881 - this may be because of the relatively higher concentrations of Jones in Welsh speaking areas.

Been on wiki then?