| THE RACIAL ORIGIN OF SUCCESSFUL AMERICANS |
By Dr. FREDERICK ADAMS WOODS
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
THE New York World Almanac and Encyclopedia for 1914 gives a table showing the commonest surnames at the present time in England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, arranged in the order of their frequency, according to a compilation made by the London Pall Mall Gazette, also the fifty commonest names in the cities of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston specially compiled for the World Almanac. A person's last name is not always an indication of race or nationality, but the following names which are here arranged in their order of frequency as they occur in England and Wales certainly have a thoroughly English sound. Smith, Jones, Williams, Taylor, Davies, Brown, Thomas, Evans, Roberts, Johnson, Wilson, Robinson, Wright, Wood, Thompson, Hall, Green, Walker, Hughes, Edwards, Lewis, White, Turner, Jackson, Hill, Harris, Clark, Cooper, Harrison, Ward, Martin, Davis, Baker, Morris, James, King, Morgan, Allen, Moore, Parker, Clark, Cook, Price, Phillips, Shaw, Bennett, Lee, Watson, Griffiths, Carter.
In contrast to this list, the English-sounding names sink to perhaps less then ten per cent. in Ireland. Probably a large proportion of these Anglo-Saxon names belong to the Protestant Irish of Ulster county. The order of frequency for Ireland as a whole is Murphy, Kelly, Sullivan, Walsh, Smith, O'Brien, Bryne, Byrne, Connor, O'Neill, Reilly, Doyle, McCarthy, Gallagher, Doherty, Kennedy, Lynch, Murray, Quinn, Moore, McLaughlin, Carroll, Connolly, Daly, Connell, Wilson, Dunne, Brennan, Burke, Collins, Campbell, Clarke, Johnson, Hughes, Farrell, Fitzgerald, Brown, Martin, Maguire, Nolan, Flynn, Thompson, Callaghan, O'Donnell, Duffy, Mahony, Boyle, Healy, Shea, White. It seems that there are only about nine names of English origin out of these fifty and with the exception of Smith none are high in the list.
In New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, the Irish, German, Scandinavian and Jewish elements are recognizable in Murphy, Kelly, Cohen, Levy, Cohn, etc. Immigration has been going on for a number of years, and we may ask to what extent these more recently arrived races have risen to positions of national importance or distinguished themselves in professional life. The compilation "Who's Who in America" endeavors to include, if not the best, at least "the best-known men and women of the United States." The standards of admission divide the eligibles into two classes (1) "those who are
