This presentation will outline the insights surnames can provide into both population structure and spatial processes. The limits to computational analysis of spatial distributions are particularly apparent in representing the individual and collective identities that shape neighbourhood structure.

The talk will reflect on the ways that ‘a name is a statement’, not just of individual identity, but as a means of viewing the effects of locational proximity, at a range of scales from the individual to the international, alongside the social similarities identified through conventional geodemographic classification. As will be demonstrated, despite being overlooked by geographers, surnames have demonstrable applications for studies of migration, population genetics to linguistics.