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 proportion 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.[1]
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.[2] Therefore this study of the
- ↑ 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, Sullivan, 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.
- ↑ See F. A. Woods, "City Boys versus Country Boys," Science, April 9, 1909; and "The Birthplaces of Leading Americans, and the Question of Heredity." 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 littérateurs have both found city-birth predominant.
