Talk:Jones (surname)

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[edit] English??

"The Jones surname was first documented in England ..." This seems unlikely given that English surnames usually derive from occupation or placename in the Tutonoic tradition or exceptionally from a Norman root. Welsh surnames derive from the Patronymic tradition so I'd like to see some evidence for the statement. Laetoli (talk) 01:30, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

The original author is right. According to www.jonesgenealogy.com, the first recorded example of the Jones surname occurred in the English county of Huntingdonshire in 1279. According to David Hey's book Family Names and Family History (a great read if you're interested in surnames), patronymics ending in -s were common in areas bordering Wales, so it was those names that became adopted as the standard when the Welsh started using fixed surnames.
But the highest frequencies per capita of Jones, Williams, Thomas etc. in Wales (indeed in the whole world) are in the Welsh speaking areas - Gaerfyrddin, Ceredigion, Caernarfon etc - i.e. the furthest parts of Wales from the English border. Laetoli (talk) 01:34, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
In fact, in 1841 at least, there were not much less than twice as many Welsh Joneses as English ones (which doesn't take into account the number of Joneses, like Inigo Jones or the Welsh communities in places like Islington, who might now thought of as English but take their name from a Welsh father):
Surname frequencies in Wales & England (1813-1837): (Surnames)
  • Jones 13.84% -------Smith 1.37%
  • Williams 8.91% -----Taylor 0.68%
  • Davies 7.09% ------Brown 0.57 %
  • Thomas 5.70% -----Jones 0.43%
Populations in 1841 - Wales 1,045,958 - England 14,868,190 (England & Wales) (Wales)
Approx Number Welsh Joneses in 1841 = 144,760
Appros Number English Joneses in 1841 = 84,748
I'm still looking into modern day figures.
Laetoli (talk) 02:45, 6 April 2008 (UTC)


BTW, many English surnames are of patronymic origin, such as Johnson, Richardson, Wilkinson, Rogers, etc.Redstar177 (talk) 16:05, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Missing!

What, no TOM Jones ???

Theres a link to Tom Jones (disambiguation) and Thomas Jones in the "See also" section. Seeing as how there are almost 30 people with that name and they already have their own disambiguation page, they're not listed here by occupation. dissolvetalk 15:40, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

How could you possibly forget John Paul Jones from the list of famous military Jones's. Must I do everything. I shall return to correct this moral outrage later. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.59.62.198 (talk) 20:45, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Done Laetoli (talk) 23:03, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Fictional characters

Merged two groups of fictional characters and placed them at the bottom of the list Laetoli (talk) 23:03, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] More Joneses

I'm in the process of adding more Joneses but this is a very big task which will never be finished - we are too many Laetoli (talk) 23:05, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Then don't add them all but add representative ones that provide a geographic and historical view on the distribution and evolution of the surname. Just having a longer list doesn't help improve the encyclopedia. --User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 01:02, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
Well just trying to add notable ones.Laetoli (talk) 01:25, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] and is now also commonly found in Wales due to immigration: causality implied?

I'm getting rid of the 'due to immigration' at the end of this sentence in the intro as it implies the causality of large numbers of Welsh people are called Jones due to the immigration of English people with the surname Jones. While there may be some truth to it, it does ignore other factors such as the adoption of (Patronymic) surnames rather than the 'ap/ferch' tradition around the 18th century. Let me know if there are any objections. Rhys —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.124.16.28 (talk) 11:10, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Disambiguation or Article ?

Isn't this article a bit of both ? Did it start life as a disambiguation ? Machete97 (talk) 18:49, 25 May 2008 (UTC)