Surname Extinction: When will we all be 'Smiths'?

The Rest Of Us on Patreon:

The Rest Of Us on Twitter:

The Rest Of Us T-Shirts and More:

Thanks to my Patrons:
Jonathan Rieke
Joe Mako
Sumit
August Noë
Merlijin
Remy Rojas

Help us caption & translate this video:

[The-Rest-of-Us]

I hope you enjoyed the video! I will publish the Matlab simulation which produced the graphs to my Patrons. *Share the video if you liked it!*

[brendonomane]

For just £2 a month you can help save these endangered surnames

[mahirorigami]

Vietnam must be in a latestage with Nguyen dominating

[duckmaneuvers]

So you're telling me, surnames have a possibility to go extinct? My goodness. Every single surname will blow into tiny Smithereens.

[Ipherix]

dunno if I trust this guy... he called a pie chart a cake. shifty.

[victoruribe]

Bru I ain't breading with no damn smith😤😤

[intherift]

This video doesn't take into account countries where surnames do not follow the same traditions as most western countries.For example, in my home country, Tajikistan, we do not follow the same principle. Surnames change each generation because the kid's surnames are their father's name with addition zoda(if it's a boy) or i (if it's a girl). My surname is Muzaffarzoda because my dad's name is Muzaffar and I'm a boy so there is an addition of zoda. My sister surname is Muzaffari because she's a girl. So I don't share my surname with my cousins, uncles, or even my own parents. Only my sister and brothers would have the same surname as me. And because usually, each boy sibling will have a different name, each of their kids will have totally different surnames. Considering all the different traditions in the world, I doubt my home country is the only country that follows a different principle when it comes surnames.

[glenn]

i don't think i've ever been in a class where no one shared my surname, whenever the teacher called out 'santos' we always had to ask which one

[abiku]

no mention of how Nguyen is like 75% of Vietnamese surnames?

[MrFoxALot]

Wait...how did the people with surname called "Dickinson" get their name from? oh god

[Mlogan]

What this video is missing is China has much fewer names not because of gradual extinction by marriage, but by wholesale name changes. People would change their surname to match the name of the ruling dynasty so they wouldn't stand out as commoners. With each new dynasty, many people would just swap out their last names.

[CounterGriefZombies]

names like smith were for blacksmiths, tailors became taylor, must be really unfortunate to have the last name Dickinson

[david]

I wish you would have gone more in-depth about the mathematical simulation of surnames in the next 1000 years.

[rahuhe]

The year is 3027, and names have lost all meaning.
We now can only identify by online usernames.
I am xX_mlgproscopemlg_Xx, and this is my story.

[Upsetti-Spaghetti]

You're Smith, he's Smith, you're all Smith! Are there any other Smiths I should know about?

[louisfronda]

I love the sigh he did when he said "Febland" 😂😂

[Nicoder]

This seems to have already happened in Kerbal Space Program. :D

[irobinhood]

Doctor:mr Smith
*everyone stands up*
"Hello!"

[animeargonaut]

Chinese women don't have to change their surnames after marriage but their children still take on the father's surname.

[alicemurphy]

I'm pretty sure that most of the comments will be "my last name is smith!"