The nineteen English furnish 168 in "Who's Who." The 8 Scotch 57, the 15 Irish 37, the 8 German or Jewish furnish only 11. Thus it appears that, while the Irish and Jewish element in New York may control politics and the wholesale and retail trade, they have not often risen to high positions.
In Chicago the German and particularly the Scandinavian elements naturally show themselves in the surnames. Smith is even outdone by Johnson (here probably to a large extent Scandinavian). Anderson beats Miller and Peterson beats Jones, Olson is commoner than Davis and appears again as Olsen. Irish names are fairly common, Jewish names are not. The names not of English origin in the above list furnish 12 distinguished Chicagoans against 80 with characteristically English names. Other names of Chicago people occurring in "Who's Who in America" in blocks of four or more are Webster, Black, Carpenter, Cole, Evans, McCormick, Mathews and Stone. Not a single foreign name occurs frequently. Crediting each common name in Chicago to the European country in which it is most common and leaving out Johnson and Anderson as doubtful cases, the distribution and number in "Who's Who" is as follows: 18 English names furnish 59 distinguished individuals; 7 Scotch 24; 11 Irish 11. The 12 Germans, Jewish, Scandinavian or other common names furnish none!
In Philadelphia (of the 50 commonest names) 32 characteristically English names total 86 distinguished persons, 18 non-English total only 7. Crediting each common name to the "Old Country" in which it is most common, we find the distribution is England and Wales 28 names with 45 in "Who's Who in America." Scotland 11 names with 18; Ireland 9 with 4, and 2 other countries with 1.
For Boston the facts are a little startling. It seems almost unbelievable that the Irish making up more than half the population of the city, many of whom represent the second and third generation (for the Irish began to come to Boston in large numbers as early as 1830), can furnish only about two dozen persons entitled to national recognition.
According to "Who's Who in America" there were no persons in Boston entitled to inclusion, at the beginning of the year 1912 bearing the most common names of McCarthy, Davis, McDonald, Kelly, Doherty, Kelley, Donovan, Collins, Ryan, Miller, McLaughlin, Walsh, Mahoney, Young, Lynch, Martin, Foley, Crowley, Barry, Burke and Driscoll. Four of these names are Anglo-Saxon in origin, 3 are common to both the Scotch and Irish and 14 are essentially Celtic. Among the 50 commonest names in Boston found in "Who's Who," those of Anglo-Saxon origin total 64 distinguished representives, those of Celtic only 5. There should be about the same number of Anglo-Saxon and of Celtic since 20 of these common Boston names are Celtic to 26
