OriginsInfo is a company, based in London UK, which specialises in the analysis of the geography of naming practices.
OriginsInfo has developed a set of technologies which enables people’s origins to be inferred on the basis of their personal and family names. Most personal names are predictive of the country from which a person’s forebears came from and of the culture within which they were brought up. Indeed from their names it is often possible to identify the original region or sometimes even the town from which a person’s forebears are most likely to have originated.
To create Mapmyname OriginsInfo has created a database containing the names and current residential locations (but not the addresses) of some 360 million residents in Western Europe and North America, all of which have come from public sources. Using this information OriginsInfo has been able to identify the most likely geographical origins of some 1,250,000 distinct family names as well as some 500,000 personal names.
OriginsInfo’s ‘Mosaic Origins’ software uses these file to profile lists of people’s names, identifying the parts of the world from which they are most likely to have originated. This software, which is marketed by Experian, is used by public sector organisations to make sure that they meet the needs of different minority communities and they don’t inadvertently discriminate against any of them when delivering public services.
Likewise the information has proved helpful to a number of commercial organisations providing for the needs of particular communities and to national organisations who want to make sure that the products they sell and the way they sell them remains sensitive to the distinctive cultures of different communities in the markets that they serve.
OriginsInfo’s products are increasingly used by academic organisations in research projects in the areas of national and international migration, ethnicity and religion.
For more information about OriginsInfo visit OriginsInfo.com
