What do the maps mean?

The map shows the geographical spread of the name (or category of name) you have selected.

For Great Britain, this spread is shown for the 120 'postal areas' into which the Post Office organise the country for the purpose of delivering mail. The 'Postal areas' are typically the first one or two characters in the postcode (eg YO for York, G for Glasgow).

These 120 postal areas are shown in one of six colours from purple, highest concentration of the name, to white, lowest concentration of the name.

For the purpose of this map a highest 'concentration' means the postal area(s) which, for the name(s) you have chosen, have the highest frequency per million names. This means that the postal areas are graded according to the relative number of electors with your name, not according to the absolute number. Were we to have coloured postal areas by the absolute numbers, then a postal area such as Birmingham, which has over a million electors, would appear purple on almost every map simply because it has by far the highest numbers of electors overall. (Further information on these Index values can be found on the "Geographical Location" link above the map).

The classing has been organised so that approximately one sixth of all the electors with the name(s) you have chosen will live in postal areas in each of the six coloured bands.

If the whole map appears to be white and/or you can’t see any postal areas coloured purple this is likely to be because the name is concentrated in inner London postal areas, some of which are so small that they can be difficult to identify on a national map.

You will find a map below identifying the postcode area codes. If you click on this, you will see a much larger version. We are currently working on producing one giving the full name of the area