selected on account of special prominence in creditable lines of effort, making them the subjects of extensive interest, inquiry or discussion in this country; and (2) those who are arbitrarily included on account of official position—civil, military, naval, religious, or educational." The arbitrary class embraces, without regard to notability or prominence in any other respect, the following: all members of congress; all governors of states, territories and island possessions of the United States now in office; all United States judges; all judges of state and territorial courts of highest appellate jurisdiction; members of the cabinet; federal department heads; all officers of the army above the rank of colonel, and all of the navy above the rank of captain; all American ambassadors and ministers plenipotentiary; heads of all the larger universities and colleges; members of the National Academy of Sciences, and of the National Academy of Design; heads of all the leading national societies devoted to educational and scientific aims; bishops and chief ecclesiastics of all the larger religious denominations in the United States; and those who are in like manner chosen because of their official relations and affiliations.
In the tables below I present the lists of the most frequent names in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston as drawn from the World Almanac for 1914, and opposite each, the number residing in each city who are included in the 1912-1913 edition of "Who's Who in America."
Other names of five or more of the same name in "Who's Who" residing in New York, but not included in the above, are Abbott, Adams, Alexander, Baker, Chapin, Clarke, Cooper, Curtis, Davis, Eaton, Fiske, Foster, Fuller, Gilbert, Greene, Holt, Johnston, Lawrence, Lee, Merrill, Mitchell, Morgan, Morse, Norton, Parsons, Perry, Phelps, Porter, Post, Putnam, Richards, Russell, Scott, Stokes, Thomas, Vanderbilt, Walker, Warren, Wood.
All these with the exception of Scott, which is a characteristic Scottish name, and Vanderbilt, which is Dutch, are characteristically English names. It would seem that the original Dutch element has not maintained itself in general leadership in New York. The English element has, I suspect that much of the concentrated eminence now in New York City is due to migration of New England strains from Connecticut and Massachusetts, which states I have already shown to lead in proportion to their population in all forms of creditable activity, and no matter what be the criterion of distinction.[1]
If these fifty commonest names in New York City are arranged in the order in which they are most common on the other side of the Atlantic, 19 of these names will fall to England and Wales, 8 to Scotland, 15 to Ireland, while 8 are characteristicly German or Jewish.
- ↑ "Historiometry as an Exact Science," Science, April 14, 1911.
