|
| |
| |
|
The Johnson FormulaFrom “Surnames and Her-Names”The fact that a preponderance of people in the country share so few surnames may at first seem worthless trivia. However, it does have one useful application. Did you ever wonder how many people you know who are not related to you? I mean personally, by name and on sight—people you are acquainted with and who know you. Go ahead, reflect, then make a guess. Is it a two digit number, three digits, or four? When I asked one friend to guess, he estimated he knew several thousands of people, but I think only those qualifying for campaign matching funds know so many. There is no accurate way for you to find out for sure exactly how many people you know because the number is constantly changing, like your Christmas card list. You meet new people and you forget others. For example, it is unlikely that you can remember most of your grade school companions, provided you are not still in grade school. But there is a way to estimate the number of acquaintances for the average person using the Johnson Formula. So if you are average, you are in luck. According to the 1990 U. S. Census Bureau data, approximately 5% of the population in the United States had the last name of Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Davis, Miller, or Wilson. Assuming the same ratio today, (recent surveys show the percentage of these names declining as a percent of the total, but 5% is close enough for this purpose) a random selection of the population should yield the same results, roughly one in twenty Americans with one of these surnames. Of course the distribution of these names may differ in various regions of the country but we will discuss the major regional exceptions in a moment. If you have a normal urban life you can use this ratio of 1:20 and the Johnson Formula to estimate the number of people whose eyeball has met your eyeball.
|