| --- |
| license: other |
| license_name: research-use-only |
| license_link: LICENSE |
| language: |
| - de |
| pretty_name: German Name Frequencies by State & District (D-Info 2005) |
| size_categories: |
| - 100K<n<1M |
| tags: |
| - onomastics |
| - surnames |
| - forenames |
| - germany |
| - demographics |
| - historical |
| configs: |
| - config_name: surnames_district |
| data_files: surnames_district.csv |
| - config_name: forenames_district |
| data_files: forenames_district.csv |
| - config_name: surnames_state |
| data_files: surnames_state.csv |
| - config_name: forenames_state |
| data_files: forenames_state.csv |
| - config_name: distinctive_surnames_state |
| data_files: distinctive_surnames_state.csv |
| - config_name: distinctive_forenames_state |
| data_files: distinctive_forenames_state.csv |
| --- |
| |
| # German Name Frequencies by State & District (D-Info 2005) |
|
|
| Regional frequency of **surnames and forenames** in Germany, from the *D-Info |
| 2005* telephone-directory CD-ROM (klickTel, data status 02.06.2005), at two |
| administrative levels aligned with census-2022 geography: |
|
|
| - **State** = *Bundesland* — the 16 federal states. |
| - **District** = *Landkreis / kreisfreie Stadt* — the 377 districts, keyed by |
| their 5-digit *Kreisschlüssel* (AGS). |
|
|
| For every name each table gives its number of 2005 telephone listings in a |
| region and the conditional probability `P(name | region)`. **Aggregate |
| statistics only** — no individuals, addresses or phone numbers. |
|
|
| ## Subsets (configs) |
|
|
| There is **no default/combined config** — load a subset by name: |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| ds = load_dataset("stefan-it/d-info-2005-names", "surnames_district", split="train") |
| ``` |
|
|
| | Config | Level | Threshold | Rows | Content | |
| |-------------------------------|----------|-----------|---------|-----------------------------------| |
| | `surnames_district` | District | N ≥ 10 | 170,642 | P(surname \| Landkreis) | |
| | `forenames_district` | District | N ≥ 10 | 89,497 | P(forename \| Landkreis) | |
| | `surnames_state` | State | N ≥ 20 | 124,109 | P(surname \| Bundesland) | |
| | `forenames_state` | State | N ≥ 20 | 19,453 | P(forename \| Bundesland) | |
| | `distinctive_surnames_state` | State | N ≥ 20 | 124,109 | surnames ranked by regional lift | |
| | `distinctive_forenames_state` | State | N ≥ 20 | 19,453 | forenames ranked by regional lift | |
|
|
| ## Schema |
|
|
| **District** subsets (`*_district`): |
|
|
| | Column | Type | Meaning | |
| |-----------------|--------|---------------------------------------------------------| |
| | `district` | string | 5-digit AGS *Kreisschlüssel* (e.g. `01001` = Flensburg) | |
| | `district_name` | string | district name | |
| | `state` | string | ISO 3166-2:DE code of the district's Bundesland | |
| | `name` | string | surname / forename (UTF-8; umlauts & ß preserved) | |
| | `count` | int | listings carrying the name in that district | |
| | `prob` | float | `count / observations-of-that-kind in that district` | |
|
|
| **State** subsets (`*_state`): columns `state, name, count, prob` (same |
| meaning, region = Bundesland). |
|
|
| **Distinctive** subsets add two columns and are sorted by `lift` descending |
| within each state: |
|
|
| | Column | Type | Meaning | |
| |--------------|-------|----------------------------------------------------| |
| | `p_national` | float | `P(name)` — the name's share nationwide | |
| | `lift` | float | `prob / p_national` — regional over-representation | |
|
|
| State ISO codes: `SH` Schleswig-Holstein, `HH` Hamburg, `NI` Niedersachsen, |
| `HB` Bremen, `NW` Nordrhein-Westfalen, `HE` Hessen, `RP` Rheinland-Pfalz, |
| `BW` Baden-Württemberg, `BY` Bayern, `SL` Saarland, `BE` Berlin, |
| `BB` Brandenburg, `MV` Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, `SN` Sachsen, `ST` Sachsen-Anhalt, |
| `TH` Thüringen. |
|
|
| ## The numbers |
|
|
| $$ |
| P(\text{name} \mid \text{region}) = \frac{\text{count}(\text{name},\ \text{region})}{\text{observations of that kind in region}} |
| $$ |
|
|
| - **Surnames** are conditioned on all listings in the region (≈ every listing |
| has a surname). |
| - **Forenames** are conditioned on listings whose forename is known (2005 lists |
| many people by initial only), and a forename is its **first given name** — |
| compound names are aggregated to word 1, so **no row contains a space** and |
| there is no separate compound table. |
|
|
| **Distinctive names** measure regional concentration rather than raw frequency |
| (Müller is #1 in every state and so tells you nothing regional): |
|
|
| $$ |
| \text{lift}(\text{name}) = \frac{P(\text{name} \mid \text{state})}{P(\text{name})} = \frac{\text{share of the name in the state}}{\text{share of the name nationwide}} |
| $$ |
|
|
| `lift = 1` → as common regionally as nationally; `lift ≫ 1` → concentrated in |
| the state → *typical* of it. Rows are ranked by `lift`. Because the only floor |
| is the k-threshold (N ≥ 20), the very top of each state list is **rare-but- |
| highly-localised** names; for *common-and-typical* names (e.g. München-region |
| Huber, Bavarian Aigner) filter on a higher `count` (say ≥ 200) before reading |
| off the ranking. Example top-lift forenames: **BY** → Emmeran, Kunigunda, |
| Kreszenz (Bavarian-Catholic); **SN** → Rico, Anett, Sylke (East-German). |
|
|
| ## Privacy |
|
|
| **Per-cell k-anonymity.** A `(name, region)` row is published **only if its own |
| count meets the threshold** — N ≥ 10 for districts, N ≥ 20 for states — so every |
| published cell represents at least that many people sharing the name in that |
| region and no individual can be singled out (GDPR Recital 26). A national-total |
| floor alone is *not* sufficient at district level: a name common nationwide can |
| still be count = 1 in one district. Only aggregate counts are released. |
|
|
| ## Provenance & licence |
|
|
| Source: *D-Info 2005* CD-ROM, klickTel (data status 02.06.2005). Only aggregate, |
| k-anonymized frequency statistics are published here. Released under a custom |
| **research-use-only** term (see `LICENSE`): use for non-commercial research, |
| with attribution, and no attempt at re-identification. |
|
|
