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Every week, msnbc.com entertainment producers Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, Denise Hazlick, Paige Newman, Kurt Schlosser and Anna Chan weigh in on topics ranging from TV commercials to movie hype to the latest celebrity blunder. We're not ashamed to admit our love for bad TV or reveal what's on our iPods, and invite you to join the conversation via your comments.



Multi-link Monday: Trace your family surnames

Posted: Monday, October 06, 2008 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:

How about another Multi-link Monday? I pull together five fun time-wasting links to start off your week, but remember, you, too, can suggest sites for me to include. Just post them in the comments, and thanks!

•  So I always thought my mother's maiden name was French, but according to World Names Profiler, it turns out it's a lot more popular in the Netherlands. Warning: Once you start typing family names into the World Names Profiler, it will be hard to stop, and you may need to start rethinking long-held assumptions about your family origins.

• Have you taken the color IQ test yet? You drag and drop different shades and try and arrange them by hue. It's simple to attempt, but so, so hard to get right. I'm gonna blame my monitor. Yep, that's it. I'm sure the color on my monitor is off.

• Dolphin Olympics is one of those really sweet, cute online games. You go, Flipper! (Via Metafilter.)

• I love this: A world map showing the locations where the photos on album covers were taken. Yes, I was once part of a group of four friends who re-enacted the Abbey Road crossing while in London, like 80 million other groups of tourists.

• A wonderful reader-submitted link comes in from Adrienne. She says: "I can't believe how bad I was at guessing world accents! Perhaps fellow readers will fare better."

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I did the color test and had perfect vision.  I didn't have any mistakes.  Very surprising... I see all different colored spots now.

Pauline, Portland, ME (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 9:35 AM)

Wow...The World Names Profiler is pretty cool...I checked my grandmother's maiden name, and one of the cities listed as having a top population of that name is the town she grew up in...

The biggest shock of all is that my maiden name came up as a name with Jewish roots...Who knew?

Katie Spring, TX (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 10:29 AM)

Thanks for the link to the name profiler! Very interesting indeed, and like Katie, I found that my name is most populous on an island from which my great grandfather immigrated from

Justin (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 11:13 AM)

The World Names Profilier didn't have any information on my surname....kind of bummed about it but oh well...

Susan, St Marys, Ga (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 11:14 AM)

I took the hue test twice, got a 10 the first time and a 4 the second time.  I played with the World Names one too and wow, I'm a Netherlander!

Lisa_S, Germantown, MD (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 11:24 AM)

YAY @ MLM!!!!
I did the colour hue test.  I did the whole first row and decided that I'd do the rest later.  It turns out, I was perfect on the first row.  Wonder how well I'd do if I spent more than 2 minutes on it.  hehe

Shawn G, Omaha (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 11:41 AM)

These were really fun! I enjoyed guessing the world accents the most. I did pretty well, but I can't believe that some people have gotten perfect or near perfect scores. Some of them are difficult.

Ashley, Pocatello Idaho (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 11:46 AM)

I searched my last name for the World Profiler...I was shocked to see my hometown as being in the top 5 for cities!  Who knew that we were one of the largest groups of Nonnemacher's.  :)

Heather, Manitowoc, WI (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 12:13 PM)

those americans have the worst american accent!
i think they tried to sound like they werent american.

fusseltier (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 12:29 PM)

I had perfect color vision too.  ;)

My eyes hurt.

Aaron, Bluffton, IN (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 1:36 PM)

The World Names Profiler seems pretty limited.  Is it only available for those countries that start off in grey?

Mireille Fry, Tallahassee, FL (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 1:40 PM)

Name profiler isn't one I'd put a whole lot of stock in... just to test it I entered names like Tran, Lui, Nguyen... not a single hit in Vietnam, China or other surrounding countries.  I find it hard to believe that Austrailia and Canada is the origins for Nguyen.  

Cheeky (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 1:55 PM)

What is up with Argentina on the World Names Profiler?  Every name we put in here at the office came in with at least a medium concentration in Argentina.  Is there something about that country I'm missing or forgetting?

Laura, Missouri (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 1:58 PM)

The World Profiler said my husband's name is German, but his family is from Poland (great-grandfather born and raised there)! Families take the name of the village/area they're from. I'd like to know where they get their info?

Linda, Lomita, CA (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 3:37 PM)

To Laura in Missouri,
Many people do not know that Argentina, although smaller in size to the U.S., is a microcosm of names from Europe and now from Asia.  So most "so-called American names" will also be represented throughout Argentina.

Silvia Mazza, Staten Island, NY (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 4:04 PM)

Just a couple of comments on the comments...

Laura - Does your last name have any German roots?  If so, that could be why there are so many in Argentina.  I know that a lot of Germans ended up there during/after WWII.

Linda - Depending on when your great-grandfather lived in Poland and which part of the country it is, the border could have moved a few times.  I know that my family likes to think of itself as more German, but some of the areas that our family came from are technically Poland.  Germany's borders have moved around quite a bit over the last couple hundred years, from what I recall.

K, Texas (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 4:13 PM)

WOW! I checked my husbands surname. It originated in Germany but the FPM is in our hometown!! Who knew??? Love it!

Joyce, Sunbury, PA (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 4:19 PM)

Apparently, my color vision is less than perfect for the strongest hues.

As for the names, I found out that my surname, and those of my ancestors, are concentrated around the U.K., Germany, and Austria, which I already knew.

But I did think it was odd that the surnames of all my closest friends are concentrated in Germany, the U.K., and Australia - I guess I don't have as much diversity in my life as I might have thought.

And, just for kicks, I decided to throw in "Obama" (no I'm not related, I was killing some time), and I found it very, very surprising that the man heralded as the first African-American with an actual chance to make it to the White House has a name that is most prevalent in Japan.  That's right, JAPAN!!

LOL, nope, I don't think you can take this one too seriously...

stacey (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 4:43 PM)

If everyone liked to look up your names on the world profiler, you should go to www.howmanyofme.com.  This tells you how many people have the same first name, same last name and same first and last name as yourself.  It is really cool.

Tami, Poland, OH (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 5:07 PM)

The FAQ of the World Profiler explains that it only has data for 26 countries. That puts limits on what countries will show up.

Myron, Temple, Texas (Sent Monday, October 06, 2008 5:41 PM)

I scored perfect on the hue test.  Good thing I am a quilter, those hue skills come in handy.

For the name profiler, it gives the origins correct to a point.  My dad's tribe from North Dakota were named by the French, so the French last name makes sense but we are NOT French blood, but my dad's original last name is no where to be found since my culture is almost up to 2% of the US population.  I highly doubt Native American names will ever be prolific in human history.  Anyhow, on my mom's side, yep, her maiden name is the typical Scottish/Irish last name from the Celtics.

Jo, Walla Walla, WA (Sent Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:02 PM)

That color test was cool....i have perfect color vision YAY! (hey, i need something to be proud of)

CM Boston, MA (Sent Tuesday, October 07, 2008 3:36 PM)

I looked up my fathers surname and sure enough, the most lived in the area he grew up in and some surrounding towns.  I now live in that same town, surrounded by family that I didn't know I had.  Time to do some hometown searching.  How great.

CS, Gardners, Pa (Sent Wednesday, October 08, 2008 11:58 AM)



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