Frequency and Distribution
In Scottish surname data, no distinction is made between, for instance, "Macdonald" and "MacDonald". According to this data, the following frequency information can be collated:
| Year(s) | Macdonald Rank | %freq | McDonald Rank | %freq |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1855–1858 | 2 | 1.23 | <50 | <0.30 |
| 1901 | ||||
| 1935 | 2 | 1.03 | <50 | <0.28 |
| 1958 | 3 | 0.98 | <50 | <0.26 |
| 1976 | 10 | 0.59 | 23 | 0.40 |
| 1990 | 10 | 0.55 | 32 | 0.35 |
| 1999–2001 | 9 | 0.55 | 24 | 0.37 |
- Table References
Frequency data from England of 1891 shows a concentration of families bearing the "Macdonald" surname in Lancashire and Yorkshire with a lower frequency in the northernmost counties, but overall widespread distribution throughout the country. "McDonald" shares the same pattern of distribution. Looking at contemporaneous data from the United States, coast-to-coast distribution of both "Macdonald" and "McDonald" appears in 1880. Looking back to 1840 in the United States, the prevalence of "McDonald" is far greater than that of "Macdonald", with concentration in the Ohio-Pennsylvania-New York corridor.
Read more about this topic: Macdonald
Famous quotes containing the words frequency and/or distribution:
“One is apt to be discouraged by the frequency with which Mr. Hardy has persuaded himself that a macabre subject is a poem in itself; that, if there be enough of death and the tomb in one’s theme, it needs no translation into art, the bold statement of it being sufficient.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“There is the illusion of time, which is very deep; who has disposed of it? Mor come to the conviction that what seems the succession of thought is only the distribution of wholes into causal series.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)