Altered Maps XII: Not to Scale

[Kyriakos]

One of the maps from Yoda's url:

So the most common surname in Kosovo is Hoxha. Makes sense

And the Borg outnumber all in Malta.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Malta - We are the Borg, you will be assimilated
Hoxha makes sense. The FYROMian slav last name oh god.
Hodžić means son of an Imam, I dont know why its so widespread, never really noticed.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hodžić means son of an Imam, I dont know why its so widespread, never really noticed.

Bosnia is bizarre.

Papadopoulos just means the son of a priest. (btw the lower clergy is allowed to marry and have children)

 

[NedimNapoleon]

Its even more strange when you see Orthodox families with Hodžić as the last name. Any member of the clergy could have as much children as he wanted...and could in theory marry more than one women (rare but still).

 

[Kyriakos]

So Angelovski means what? I gather the Angelo part means angel (how original that they used a Greek word ), but i don't know what the ending means.

 

[warpus]

owski/ovski/ovsky - common Slavic last name suffix. I actually think it's 2 suffixes in one

ow - from a place
ski - son of

And didn't you know that the Greek language and culture has had a big influence on Europe as a whole?

 

[Borachio]

Surnames are quite interesting. And the number of surnames that anyone country has goes down over time, as the male lineages gradually die out.

But it all gets a bit complicated.

The number extant depends on when surnames were adopted and how many were originally adopted.

So China has very few because they adopted them very early on. So something like (I can't remember the exact figures) 85% of Chinese people share only 3 surnames.

Then again, Wales has only a few surnames because although they adopted them very late, they didn't think much of the idea (as it was an English one), and didn't come up with many imaginative ideas.

I wonder where I was reading about this.

And didn't you know that the Greek language and culture has had a big influence on Europe as a whole?

Oh really? You don't say? That's a rather novel idea. I don't remember ever having come across it before.

 

[Arakhor]

Well, they gave Europe the Elgin Marbles, inspired the Romans and propagated both Orthodox Christianity and the Cyrillic alphabet. The Great Library at Alexandria also provided a great many texts to the Arab scholars.

 

[Kyriakos]

owski/ovski/ovsky - common Slavic last name suffix. I actually think it's 2 suffixes in one

ow - from a place
ski - son of

And didn't you know that the Greek language and culture has had a big influence on Europe as a whole?

Yeah, i just expected the most common surname in Fyrom to be formed from another Greek name, and be Alexandrovski (or Philippovski, if it would signify Alexander) or something like that

 

[warpus]

lol @ "fyrom"

 

[Civ'ed]

One of the maps from Yoda's url:

So the most common surname in Kosovo is Hoxha. Makes sense

And the Borg outnumber all in Malta.

Apparently Switzerland is not in Europe.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

^
I was curious about Moldova & Iceland too.

Anyway what does Smirnov mean in russian ? Tell me there's more to it than just vodka.

 

[Civ'ed]

According to Wikipedia, Smirnov is derived from the word for "meek" or "gentle".

 

[Borachio]

In Iceland they're all, mostly, so-and-so's son or daughter

So you don't inherit your father's surname but the patronymic.

And the phone book is arranged in alphabetical order by the first name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name

It seems a remarkably sensible system to me. So that as the male lineages die out the number of surnames isn't reduced, as it is elsewhere.

 

[madviking]

I mean, look at Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands...

 

[gangleri2001]

The fact that the most common family name in Spain is a Basque family name is what I call an epic trolling

 

[Tee Kay]

The USA according to autocomplete:

Europe according to Charles V:

This is hilarious:

 

[hoplitejoe]

Those prejudice maps are getting pretty specific.

 

[CELTICEMPIRE]

The USA according to autocomplete:

Kentucky and Pennsylvania aren't racist, not completely sure about West Virginia, was more struck by the obesity there.

 

[Kyriakos]

Found a few stylized AD&D maps of Greece and other parts of Europe:

http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.gr/2011/12/maps-of-games-gone-bye.html

I love this kind of map

Edit: Btw, it seems those maps are centered on a campaign of the Greek world, and on the city-state named in them as "Pillase", which probably refers to the Greek colony of Olokenion in the coastal Illyria (now part of Montenegro and called Ulcinj)