Conclusion

Abstract

This book has presented a wealth of evidence of how naming ties are formed, disseminated and preserved over generations and across space through socio-cultural networks. Through a series of innovative methods and multi-disciplinary linkages this book has shown why disentangling these naming ties can be very useful in population studies of diversity between human groups, both in historic and contemporary contexts. Space is the geographical key to link those temporal, social and ethno-cultural processes, providing the backdrop onto which uncover past and current migrations, and thus letting the reader to trace identity in space, through names, ethnicity and populations.

Identity, though complex, can be encoded in a name (Seeman, 1980: 129)