When two people get married, their kids get the father’s name (with rare exceptions). For each family that has only girls, that family name won’t be continued. This means every generation we should lose a fraction of family names. Will we eventually run out of family names?
-A Friend of J
No, that is seriously… You have to be kidding me. No, we won’t run out of names. Not only to people make up last names for various reasons — including fraud, disassociation from exiting family, or being born with a dumb name — but people also have a huge overlap in names. Any family that has had at least two name carriers at any time has a huge number of name carriers. I bet that there are at least 1,000 that have the same last name as you that have no discernible relation to you. There has probably never been a name that simply disappeared from existence for more than a day or so.
But thanks for the question. I always appreciate a ludicrous premise.
What’s going to be the next crazy Ben & Jerry’s flavor?
-Tanqueray
My best guess is Barney the Presidential Scottie Crunch. It will contain banana ice-cream with chunks of walnuts and butter-nut squash. It will have a picture of a fat black dog barfing a cornucopia.
