Autism Spectrum and Rare Last Names

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First of all, please don't mention your last name in your post if you respond, due to privacy concerns.

Has anyone noticed people diagnosed with ASD's seem to have Rare last names?

Here is a website with statistics on the commonality of names.

http://www.namestatistics.com/

If you want to participate, please check the statistics on your last name, and check the corresponding option in the poll.

Conversions from the percentages given in the results of the website to fractions given in the poll:

Less than 1 in 1000 is 1.0% to .1% (Smith at 1.006 percent is most common)
1 in 1000 to1 in 5000 is .1% to .05%
1 in 5000 to 1 in 10,000 is .05% to .01%
1 in 10,000 to 1 in 25,000 is .01% to .0025%
1 in 25,000+ is .0025%+

If you get a rare result with no statistics it means your name is rarer than the 88,000+ names in the data base. It meets the 1 in 25,000+ poll option. Please comment in a post if you get this result.

The following website provides information from the US Census for up to 150,000 names. If you get a rare result from the first website and are interested in reporting what you find there, please comment in a post.

http://www.americanlastnames.us/index.html

Also, if you are living in another country and answer the poll, if you will, please, indicate in a post, since the statistics are from the US.


Genetics are associated with surnames in some studies.

Were you the only one you came across in real life, other than family, with the same last name?

It could be just coincidence, but when I hear the real names of people diagnosed with ASD's the names are often ones that I haven't heard before.

Mine was about 1 in 30000 people in the US; not too rare, but I worked with the general public for years, and never came across another individual with the same last name.

A loose analogy and only speculation that they had ASD's. But, how many Einsteins, Mozarts, or Beethovens have you come across in your life? Very rare last names.

If anyone thinks this is an area worthwhile of speculation, can anyone offer up a potential hypothesis of why, if there were an association between ASD's and rare last names?

It makes sense that people with more recent European heritage may have higher rates of autism, as the disorder is more common among Caucasians and Europeans have been breeding within a smaller gene pool for thousands of years.

They *may* have unusual last names in the US.

Also, last names may fail to make their away around due to lack of social relationships/sexual relations and ultimately, marriage.

My father's last name (he's very Aspie, but his name is not my last name) is less common than 1 in 50,000 in the US.

The search is limited to first and last names in the US. The names that are common and rare in the US might not be common and rare elsewhere and vice versa.


TheSunAlsoRises

Both my parents last names are in the 1000-5000 group. I know exactly were my last name came from, and my mothers maiden name is particullary common among a certain cultural group in the US.

mine just said very rare. that surprises me because my name is very common in Pennsylvania. but i guess it aint common anywhere else.

My last name is Zabriski. It said it was VERY rare.

Very rare my name is Italian and it's rare in Italy lol

Ok, I looked at my grandmothers' maiden names, and my paternal one is EXTREMELY common, while my maternal one is pretty rare, less than one in 40,000, and its were most of my famous ancestors come from.

I used my maiden name, figuring my married name has nothing to do with my genetics, and it only said "very rare". Hmmmm....

~Kate

The poll options don't seem to match the results.

Mine gave:

(NAME) is the #38000 most common last name
0.0005% of last names in the US are (NAME).

(I rounded the rank number so it doesn't point to my actual surname.)

Have to mathematically translate that to answer the poll, which gives 1 in 200,000 people having my last name.

(Edited because I screwed up the math.)

"***** is the #49834 most common last name
0.0005% of last names in the US are *****.
Around 1250 people have ***** as a last name!"

OK, did the math, so I can choose a poll option. According to Wikipedia, the US population is 312,754,000.

312,754,000/1250= 250203.2

Therefore, my last name is 1 in 250,000+.

My last name is very, very common. It's in the top 20 of most common last names.

My son's the one with the diagnosis, and I strongly suspect his father is also autistic. The website says it is a very rare surname in the US and I know that it is a very rare surname in Scotland where we live. The name originates in Scotland, but is more common now in Ireland. As far as I am aware there is only one other family with this surname in Scotland who are not directly or at least recently related to my ex husband's family.