Surnames and Genetics

Mark A Jobling, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

Published online: March 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005963.pub2

Heritable surnames contain information about the relatedness of individuals within and between populations, and thus can be used to estimate human inbreeding and population structure. These estimates are affected adversely by the failure of underlying assumptions: many surnames have several founders, and the link between surname and inheritance can be broken by nonpaternity and other factors. Associations between patrilinearly inherited surnames and paternally inherited Y-chromosome haplotypes are now allowing the histories of names to be investigated using molecular genetic methods.

Keywords: surname; isonymy; nonpaternity; Y chromosome; haplotype

 References
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 Further Reading
    Colantonio SE, Lasker GW, Kaplan BA and Fuster V (2003) Use of surname models in human population biology: a review of recent developments. Human Biology 75: 785–807.
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    Shriver MD and Kittles RA (2004) Genetic ancestry and the search for personalized genetic histories. Nature Reviews Genetics 5: 611–618.
    Sykes B and Irven C (2000) Surnames and the Y chromosome. American Journal of Human Genetics 66: 1417–1419.

Related Sub-Topics:

Human Evolution | Population Structure and Genetics
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Article Title: Surnames and Genetics
 
How to Cite close
Jobling, Mark A(Mar 2008) Surnames and Genetics. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005963.pub2]