What’s in a name? Are surnames derived from trades and occupations associated with lower GCSE scores?

Abstract

In England, there are persistent associations between measures of socio-economic advantage and educational outcomes. Research on the history of names, meanwhile, confirms that surnames in England – like many other countries – were highly socially stratified in their origins. These facts prompted us to wonder whether educational outcomes in England might show variation by surname origin, and specifically, whether surnames with an occupational origin might be associated with slightly lower average GCSE scores than surnames of other origins. Even though surnames do not measure an individual’s socio-economic position, our hypothesis was that in aggregate, the educational outcomes of a group defined in this way might still reflect past social history. In line with the research hypothesis, the results showed that the mean GCSE scores of candidates with occupational surnames were slightly lower than the mean GCSE scores of candidates with other surnames. The difference in attainment was a similar size to the difference expected between candidates half a year apart in age, and much smaller than the “gap” between male and female candidates. The explanation for the identified effect was beyond the scope of the current research, but surname effect mechanisms proposed in the literature include the psychological (e.g., implicit egotism), sociological and socio-genetic.