Political Surnames

There are just over 21,000 elected politicians in the UK. That's enough to do a statistical study of their surnames, to see if there are any difference between the parties and, indeed, any difference between politicians and the public as a whole.

For the purposes of this study, I have included elected members of the House of Commons (MPs), the European Parliament (MEPs), the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and the Welsh Assembly (AMs) as well as county, district, borough and unitary authority councillors.

Most common surnames, by party

The simplest comparison is a list of the most common surnames in each party, as well as policians as a whole. The icons show whether the surname is more common among politicians (green) than in the population as a whole, or less common (red).

Most over-represented surnames, by party

Another interesting comparison is to see which surnames are over-represented - that is, surnames which appear far more frequently among politicians than they do in the population as a whole.

The number after each name is how much more likely the name is to be found among politicians than in the general populace, where 100 means that the probability is exactly the same as normal. For example, a figure of 200 indicates that holders of that surname are twice as likely to be politicians as a person picked at random.

All Politicians

  1. Sheldon (291)
  2. Patrick (289)
  3. Curran (286)
  4. Bridges (275)
  5. Whittle (263)
  6. Docherty (257)
  7. Bevan (245)
  8. Cartwright (244)
  9. Rigby (234)
  10. Rowlands (227)

Conservative

  1. Hicks (341)
  2. Cartwright (315)
  3. Simmons (242)
  4. Hart (239)
  5. Osborne (217)
  6. Chapman (213)
  7. Kemp (213)
  8. Hunt (203)
  9. Barker (185)
  10. Burgess (185)

Labour

  1. Murphy (259)
  2. Hussain (252)
  3. Malik (230)
  4. Hamilton (225)
  5. Watts (222)
  6. Gordon (222)
  7. Lowe (219)
  8. Walsh (204)
  9. Holland (197)
  10. Khan (193)

Liberal Democrat

  1. Allen (211)
  2. Williams (150)
  3. Davies (139)
  4. Wilson (138)
  5. Roberts (134)
  6. Jones (131)
  7. Brown (112)

UKIP

  1. Agnew (9,667)
  2. Bernard (8,348)
  3. Wiltshire (7,334)
  4. Aldred (5,944)
  5. Lay (5,859)
  6. Povey (5,812)
  7. Pitcher (5,541)
  8. Silvester (5,449)
  9. Bramley (5,240)
  10. Batten (5,109)

Green

  1. Raine (16,886)
  2. Boswell (13,107)
  3. Galvin (8,288)
  4. Barraclough (8,251)
  5. Stringer (8,129)
  6. Telford (8,079)
  7. Shanks (7,893)
  8. Coyne (7,175)
  9. Deane (5,912)
  10. Benjamin (5,478)

SNP

  1. Ewing (4,722)
  2. Coffey (4,598)
  3. Valentine (3,770)
  4. Hendry (3,568)
  5. Coyle (3,534)
  6. Docherty (3,300)
  7. Dick (2,818)
  8. MacGregor (2,604)
  9. Dickson (2,226)
  10. Bain (2,180)

Plaid Cymru

  1. Whittle (5,928)
  2. MacRae (5,053)
  3. McEvoy (4,993)
  4. Harries (4,561)
  5. Strong (4,431)
  6. Jarman (4,315)
  7. Purcell (3,951)
  8. Dudley (3,397)
  9. Sargent (3,315)
  10. Franks (3,206)

Most under-represented surnames, by party

Finally, we can also look at which surnames are under-represented in politics. For this comparison, I have only done politicians as a whole and the three main parties, as the smaller parties have too few elected representatives for this to be meaningful. I have also restricted the comparison to surnames which are common in the population as a whole, with at least 100,000 holders of the name.

The number after each name is how much more likely the name is to be found among politicians than in the general populace, where 100 means that the probability is exactly the same as normal. For example, a figure of 50 indicates that holders of that surname are half as likely to be politicians as a person picked at random.

All Politicians

  1. Singh (21)
  2. Patel (34)
  3. Thompson (57)
  4. Moore (59)
  5. Lee (61)
  6. King (62)
  7. Ahmed (62)
  8. Anderson (64)
  9. Shaw (64)
  10. Ali (65)

Conservative

  1. Khan (0)
  2. Singh (5)
  3. Ali (12)
  4. Ahmed (17)
  5. Hussain (40)
  6. Murphy (42)
  7. Moore (43)
  8. Patel (45)
  9. Collins (48)
  10. King (54)

Labour

  1. Thompson (36)
  2. Patel (38)
  3. Parker (40)
  4. Ward (49)
  5. Hall (51)
  6. Richardson (54)
  7. Anderson (55)
  8. Lee (55)
  9. Singh (58)
  10. Baker (58)

Liberal Democrat

  1. Singh (0)
  2. Jackson (15)
  3. Anderson (19)
  4. Patel (19)
  5. Ahmed (19)
  6. Ali (20)
  7. Bennett (22)
  8. Hussain (23)
  9. Murphy (24)
  10. Richardson (25)

These stats are based on the most current set of data available. If there have been elections (including by-elections) recently, it may be a few weeks before this page catches up.