三大姓與逐漸消失的姓氏

　　世界各國都有“三大姓”的說法，中國有張王李；英國是Smith, Jones, Williams; 美國是Smith, Johnson, Carson; 法國是Martin, Bernard, Dupont; 德國是Schultz, Mueller, Shmidt; 蘇聯是Ivanov, Vasiliev, Deternov。一些古怪搞笑的姓氏逐漸會被淘汰，請看下面有關英國姓氏變遷的有趣新聞：

　　The number of people in Britain with surnames like Cockshott, Balls, Death and Shufflebottom--likely the source of schoolroom laughter--has declined by up to 75 percent in the

　　last century.

　　一些容易成為校園笑柄的英國怪姓在過去一個世紀里下降了75%，這些姓氏包括考克夏特、鮑爾、戴斯和蘇佛爾鮑特姆。

　　A study found the number of people with the name Cock shrank to 785 last year from 3,211 in 1881, those called Balls fell to 1,299 from 2,904 and the number of Deaths were

　　reduced to 605 from 1,133.

　　一項研究表明，1881年有3211人以Cock（在俚語中有“男子生殖器”的意思）為姓，去年這個數字下降至785人；姓Balls（意思同Cock）的從2904人下降到了1299人，姓Deaths（死亡）的人由1133人降為605人。

　　People named Smellie decreased by 70 percent, Dafts by 51 percent, Gotobeds by 42 percent, Shufflebottoms by 40 percent, and Cockshotts by 34 percent, said Richard Webber,

　　visiting professor of geography at King's College, London.

　　倫敦國王學院地理系客座教授理查德韋伯表示，姓Smellie（臭）的人口減少了70%，姓Dafts（愚蠢）的減少了51%，其它減少的姓氏有：Gotobeds（上床）42%，Shufflebottom（蘇佛爾的屁股）40%，Cockshotts（一種游戲）34%。

　　"If you find the (absolute) number goes down, it's either because they changed their names or they emigrated," Webber, author of the study, told Reuters on Wednesday.

　　負責此項研究的韋伯周三對路透社表示，如果你發現姓氏的數量減少了，那可能是人們改姓或者移民了。

　　He said that in many cases, people probably changed their surnames as they came to be regarded as in bad taste. "It's because the meaning of words can change. Take the name Daft

　　--that as a term for a stupid is a relatively recent innovation."

　　多數情況下，一旦人們覺得自己的姓氏沒品味，他們就可能改姓。“詞匯的含義會不斷改變。比如隨著詞義的變化，Daft這個詞就新增了‘愚蠢’的含義。”

　　According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Daft meant "mild" or "meek" in Old English, whereas it means "foolish" today. "That's why there are names which people think aren't

　　really very pleasant names and you wonder why they persisted as long as they did."

　　《牛津英語(論壇)字典》顯示，Daft在古英語中是“溫和”與“溫順”的含義，而如今它卻是“愚蠢”的意思。“這就是為什么在人們眼中不討喜的名字卻在過去存在了許久的原因。”

　　Webber, whose work can be seen on the website mapyourname.com, got his data for 2008 from credit card firm Experian and mapping service Geowise. He then compared it with the

　　census of 1881.

　　www.mapyouname.com網站顯示了韋伯的研究成果。韋伯2008年的統計數據來自于信用機構Experian和地理分析軟件供應商Geowise。他將這些數據同1881年人口普查的數據進行了對比。

　　Webber also discovered that the most popular names in Britain have not changed over the past 127 years. Last year, Smith, Jones, Williams, Brown and Taylor held the top five spots, in exactly the same order as they did a century ago.

　　韋伯也發現，英國127年以來排名靠前的姓氏始終未變。去年的統計顯示，史密斯、瓊斯、威廉姆斯、布朗和泰勒占據了姓氏排名的前五位，而這個排名一個世紀以來未有變動。

　　Webber also found that between 1996 and 2008, the names Zhang, Wang, and Yang experienced the fastest growth. Zhang rose by 4719 percent, while Wang grew by 2225 percent.

　　韋伯同時發現，在1996至2008年期間，張姓、王姓和楊姓成為增幅最大的幾個姓氏。其中姓張的人口飆升了4719%，而姓王的人口增加了2225%。

　　2008年英國十大姓氏

　　1、史密斯（SMITH）

　　2、瓊斯（JONES）

　　3、威廉姆斯（WILLIAMS）

　　4、布朗（BROWN）

　　5、泰勒（TAYLOR）

　　6、（DAVIES）

　　7、威爾森（WILSON）

　　8、埃文斯（EVANS）

　　9、托馬斯（THOMAS）

　　10、約翰森（JOHNSON）