SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS 401 



Anglo-Saxon and about half the present population is Catholic Irish. 

 Looking at the matter another way and crediting all of each name to 

 that country of origin in which the name occurs most frequently, or 

 highest in the Pall Mall Gazette list, we find England and Wales 21 

 names credited with 55; Scotland 8 names credited with 14; Ireland 21 

 names credited with 5 distinguished, or more strictly speaking, widely- 

 known Americans now residents of Boston. 



It is true that people of non-English origin often change their 

 names, making them more attractive to American ears, a Schneider 

 becomes a Taylor, a Weiss a White, or even a Solomon Levi may become 

 a Sydney Lee. But I do not believe that such changes can have had 

 any appreciable effect on the present investigation and none at all on 

 the conclusions. I do not believe that more than a very small propor- 

 tion of these persons in "Who's Who in America" who have English 

 names have acquired their names in any other way than by natural 

 descent. For the Boston statistics, I have been able to test this question 

 by personal knowledge of the individuals or from genealogical inquiries. 

 I know of two cases of notable foreigners bearing English names, one a 

 Portuguese and one a Jew; but out of the 851 Bostonians in "Who's 

 Who," I am very sure that not five per cent., probably not one per cent., 

 have English names by change from a foreign one. I have made a special 

 test of the Boston names and find out of 851 persons, that (bearing in 

 mind the possibility of slight further readjustments) they must be 

 classified as 19 Irish, 10 North Irish, 30 various European names and 

 doubtful cases and 786 of true English or Scotch origin. 



Thus to summarize : In the 4 leading American cities, New York, 

 Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, it is safe to say that, at the present 

 time, those of English and Scotch ancestry are distinctly in possession 

 of the leading positions at least from the standpoint of being widely 

 known, and that, in proportion to their number, the Anglo-Saxons are 

 from 3 to 10 times as likely as are the other races to achieve positions of 

 national distinction. 2 



The cities contain most of the foreign elements. The cities are 

 also the concentration points for most types of ability. They are also 

 the breeding grounds of future leaders. 3 Therefore this study of the 



2 It is not possible to express this ratio accurately without a great deal of 

 labor. Since the commonest names of all, Smith, Brown, Miller, Johnson, Sulli- 

 van, etc., are, on the whole, more English than foreign, all names can not be 

 given the same weight. It would be necessary to go through the directories, 

 count the names, and thus get the separate weights for each name. 



s See F. A. Woods, "City Boys versus Country Boys," Science, April 9, 

 1909; and "The Birthplaces of Leading Americans, and the Question of Hered- 

 ity. ' ' Mr. Spillman 's side of the case should also be read, though his statistics 

 seem to me to be meager. Galton for English scientists and Odin for French 

 litterateurs have both found city-birth predominant. 



