Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 April 2

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April 2

Last names/marriages

Do people with certain last names tend to marry other people with certain other last names? For example, if your last name ends with one of the latter letters of the alphabet, do you tend to marry someone else whose name ends with a latter letter of the alphabet? My question isn't limited to this, just an example. Bobsoven (talk) 10:02, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

The major factor influencing a choice of husband is how rich he is. Now it might be interesting to do a study on whether people whose names begin earlier in the alphabet are more successful. 149.254.56.172 (talk) 10:32, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Given the common tendency to list people in alphabetical order, you may be more likely to find yourself sitting or standing next to someone whose name is closer to your own. You may not fall in love with them - but the possibility is there. Not that it worked for me - I am an "S" who married an "F" Wymspen (talk) 11:27, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

• My sister married two letters away, but I have had very long relationships 8, 13, and 2 letters away. Given my surname's in the middle of the alphabet, that should not be a surprise. Based on this premise, I should probably be married to the kid who sat next to me from kindergarten though 6th grade, since we had the same first name. and the only difference in the first 4 letters of our last name was an umlaut. But no. The 13 letter relationship has last the longest. μηδείς (talk) 17:43, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

This is the kind of thing that needs large random samples to have statistical significance. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:30, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

The OP asked about last names which end with a given letter not those that begin with one. Thus, alphabetic order is not relevant. No comment on how many people marry people they stand next to - or far away from - in a line. MarnetteD|Talk 19:44, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

MarnetteD, the OP quite plainly states that that is just an example, and they're looking for any kind of correlation between names. Rojomoke (talk) 23:43, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Well, on that basis, mine and my steadys' last names have ended with r, s, s and y. QED. μηδείς (talk) 16:17, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Franklin Roosevelt married Eleanor Roosevelt. There's Johnny Carson, whose first three wives had given names starting with J. And then there's Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:31, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Given that about half of all names of that era begin with J, (Jean, James/Jim, Joan, John, Joseph-ine) I don't doubt that your own name, Bugs, begins with a J. μηδείς (talk) 16:17, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

No, it doesn't. It's in the other 50 percent. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 05:43, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Jaseball Bugs? No, that doesn't sound right.  :) -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 21:47, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

The concept of manufacturing a name exists and has been parodied on television for both good (Max Power) and bad (Marcy Darcy). While I can see someone shying away from adopting a poor name (Cobbledick), I cannot see a woman purposely hunting down a man with a nice last name (Champion). There is always the option of not adopting the spouse's last name or everyone getting a legal name change (I am now Master Wikipedia). 209.149.113.5 (talk) 14:24, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Relevant to this comment, if not to the original question, is Miss Winchelsea's Heart by H G Wells. --ColinFine (talk) 19:45, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Also vaguely relevant, or at least interesting, is internet humorist Zach Weiner who married a scientist named "Kelly Smith", and they both changed their last name to "Weinersmith". ApLundell (talk) 21:10, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Not bad. Could have been Wurst. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:00, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

I know of someone named Sitaker, which iirc was a blend of Whitaker with er um something else. I also know of a couple who jointly adopted the name of a tree in lieu of their previous surnames. —Tamfang (talk) 03:48, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

I don't know I didn't think of Master Bates yesterday. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 18:48, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Being called that one too many times might be what drove Norman over the edge. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:00, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

• Max Power! Hahahahaha! God, that episode was aired when my neighbor's wife shot him to death. I am not sure if I should laugh or cry. At least the cops were there within 60 seconds. Enough time for me to vent the pot smoke out of my apartment. μηδείς (talk) 17:29, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

• Endogamy is relevant. People are likely to marry someone of the same ethnic background; different languages and groups have different surname conventions. Reddit example graph: Many African American surnames end in -son, and many Latino surnames end in -ez. jnestorius^(talk) 13:08, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

That graph relates to Hispanic surnames in the United States. -ez is the Spanish form - the Portuguese form ends in -es. Cf Luis Suárez and Mário Soares. 86.147.208.39 (talk) 11:11, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Many Chinese surnames both start and end with "lee". Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:27, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Yes, my freshman college roomie was named Mei Lilili. /s μηδείς (talk) 17:18, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

List of people with reduplicated names may be of interest. 86.147.208.100 (talk) 15:21, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

Why do tea parties serve air?

Tea is not expensive, especially the amounts in those tiny little cups. Can't the human(s) at least drink free tap water and serve air to the dolls? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 17:34, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

You can let your daughter use water or anything else if you want to clean up the mess. It tends to be much easier to clean spilled air than spilled tea. 71.85.51.150 (talk) 18:33, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Also tea tends to stain and there could be water damage to wooden furniture, if not wiped up. And children shouldn't drink real tea, as the caffeine may not be good for them. StuRat (talk) 19:51, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

I was given the occasional tea as young as I can remember. I don't know if it was decaffeinated. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:04, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

A cautionary tale if there ever was one. Look where you ended up, lurking around here and talking to strangers. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:14, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

for the claim that children shouldn't drink tea. Iapetus (talk) 16:05, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

The Mayo clinic suggests avoiding caffeine consumption on a regular basis for pre-adolescents: [1]. (I wonder if the tea association suggest that they avoid mayo. :-) ) StuRat (talk) 04:22, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

• So this question is basically, "why do children play?". (Sagittarian Milky Way, I think I've mentioned this to you before: there is actually an an encyclopedia attached to this internet discussion board. You can look things like this up there.) See illustration.--Shirt58 (talk) 03:15, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

• No, it's why do they play with toys, instead of the real deal. There can be many reasons, from safety (such as guns) to expense (such as jewelry). But, in some cases, it does seem appropriate to me to give kids a cheap version of the real thing, like a real xylophone versus those silly toy piano things. Or get them a soft hammer instead of a silly plastic one. StuRat (talk) 05:38, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

China's poorest county

There is a list of provinces by GDP per capita List of Chinese administrative divisions by GDP per capita. Presumably the poorest county is among the three poorest provinces Yunnan, Guizhou, and Gansu. But which is it? Muzzleflash (talk) 17:51, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Poorest per capita or poorest in total ? StuRat (talk) 19:49, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Prefectures are the level between province and county so may be easier to find data on. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:10, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

It's probably amongst the "national level impoverished counties", of which there are a couple of hundred, but individual GDP figures are not easy to find. We do not have an article on en.wiki, but the Chinese article is at zh:国家级贫困县. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 10:11, 3 April 2017 (UTC)

Western China is known in China as being the poorest of the poor areas. Tibet, Qinhai, and Xinjiang are the western regions. Tibet is poor, with plenty of both urban and rural poverty and very low GDP. Qinhai isn't much better. Xinjiang is improving due to mining. It is still very poor. If you are looking for something smaller than a region, I would look in Tibet and Qinhai. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 13:32, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Where would you place Gansu? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 14:03, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

Gansu is west, sort of wrapping Qinghai. Like Xinjiang, there is a lot of development in mining there, which is improving the economy. But, keep in mind that this is China. It is not a free market economy. So, just because a lot of expensive minerals are mined doesn't mean that the area necessarily profits from it. It is just as possible that they suffer from it. A "Western" way to view it is like the colonial times. The producing areas were treated pretty much like slaves and the profits went elsewhere. The Chinese government will not publish anything suggesting that they are exploiting the western mountains, so getting a reference that makes that claim is difficult. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 15:23, 5 April 2017 (UTC)

That's a curious assessment. How do you reconcile your quanlitative assessments with the stats, that show Gansu to be the poorest province-level subdivision of China by GDP per capita? None of Xinjiang, Tibet or Qinhai rank in the bottom three. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:53, 6 April 2017 (UTC)

New York subway (March 27)

Posters have been describing some of the bad things which happen on this system. It even has rats [2]. London has a statutory body, London TravelWatch, which monitors the quality of the service. Is there no equivalent in New York? 86.134.217.55 (talk) 19:25, 2 April 2017 (UTC)

Maybe? It has the Straphangers Campaign. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:28, 2 April 2017 (UTC)