Codes

This is a 32-character string variable.

Description

NAMELAST is an alphabetic variable giving a person's full last name. It will primarily be of use to researchers linking the IPUMS historical census data to other sources of demographic data, or researchers whose research topic involves naming patterns. Because of the length of this variable (32 columns), and the size of the dataset, other researchers should not select this variable.

NAMELAST is used to produce the variable SURSIM which assigns the same code to all persons within each household who had a shared surname.

Comparability — Index

Comparability — General

The collection of names was substantially similar in all censuses. Canadian and United States instructions to enumerators indicated that the surname was to be written before the first name, whereas Norwegian and the Icelandic 1801 instructions gave no direction in this regard. The Icelandic 1901 instructions direct the enumerator to list the first and last names in separate columns.

Many families in the Norwegian and Swedish samples do not have a shared family name, instead following patronymic naming conventions (where a child's last name is derived from his or her father's first name). Consequently, husbands and wives, as well as parents and children, often do not share last names.

Universe

Availability

• Canada: 1852, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911
• Denmark: 1787, 1801
• Germany: 1819
• Iceland: 1703, 1729, 1801, 1901, 1910
• Norway: 1801, 1865, 1875, 1900, 1910
• Sweden: 1880, 1890, 1900, 1910
• United Kingdom: 1851c
• United States: 1850a, 1850b, 1860, 1870, 1880a, 1880b, 1900, 1910