206 
Willis.—Age and Area. 
being rare, but a few, like Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson, being very 
numerous. But the reason for their distribution is evidently the same as in 
the case of plants. Some names are older than others, and will thus be more 
widely distributed and common, whilst, just as in plants, the large ones 
will tend to gain upon the small at an accelerated rate (cf. book, p. 34). 
Further, polyphyly, or multiple origin, is more likely to occur with names 
than with species. 
The most slowly moving class of people in Britain is undoubtedly the 
class of farmers, many of them yeomen of very ancient descent upon the 
same spot. Guppy has made a special study of the distribution of their 
names in England and Wales, with statistical figures of frequency. 
Taking all names that occur in any county to a frequency (in the class of 
farmers) of 7 per 10,000, or more, he finds 3,925 names represented. When 
tabulated by frequency, these show : 
Reaching a commonness 
of 7 per 10,000 in 
1 county 
Number of 
names. 
2,441 
2 counties 
6so 
3 tt 
268 
4 >> 
m 
130 
5 
83 
6 
, 6 <> 
7 ,, 
45 
8 „ 
36 
9 
• 
28 
IO „ 
15 
The numbers afterwards show a few trifling irregularities, but show some for every number 
of counties up to 36 (8 for 15 counties, 4 for 20, 5 for 25, 3 for 30, 1 for 35), and there is also one each 
for 39, 40, and 41 counties. 
* 
In other words, the distribution of these names is closely similar to the 
distribution of the species of a genus (cf. many examples in my book in 
ch. xvi), beginning with a great many on the smallest unit of area, and 
diminishing rapidly at first and more slowly later. The same general rule 
has evidently guided both distributions. Take, for example, opening the 
book at random, the name Halfacre. It reaches a frequency of 20 per 
10,000 in Berkshire, but does not reach 7 anywhere else. It therefore 
may be presumed with good probability that the name originated in or 
near Berkshire. In the same way Hadfield (frequency 52) occurs in Derby¬ 
shire, Haffenden (18) in Sussex, Hadley (22) in Worcester, Haggett (9) in 
Somerset, none of these reaching a commonness of 7 anywhere else. But 
if one take such a name as Smith, one finds it common in nearly all 
counties, though varying from 300 in Worcester to 22 in Somerset. 
Now let us look at the figures in another way. For each name and 
each county Guppy gives the proportion per j 0,000 when it is above six. 
Let us begin with the names that are given for one county only. These 
