Distribution and frequency of the name Skyrm(e) at various places and times. See also the related page on the distribution of the variants of the name.
Note - more analysis is currently under way and this page willl be updated shortly with more detailed tables.
Frequency
The name Skyrm(e) comes into the category of 'rare' based on there being an average of 18 births in the two year periods 1850-1 and 1950-1. This is using the Smallshaw scale which goes from very high frequency (over 1,250) through average (51-250) to very rare (<10). Rare is between 11-50. Whereas in 1850-1 the numbers for Skyrm and Skyrme were equal, there was only one Skyrm born in England in 1950-51 vs 18 Skyrme. In contrast, in the USA, the 1950-1 frequency of Skyrm is similar to that of Skyrme. Using World Profiler:
- the variant Skyrme has a frequency of 15.2 per million in the UK, 6.7 in New Zealand, 1.38 in Canada and 0.52 in the USA
- the variant Skyrm has a frequency of 0.41 per million in the USA and 0.09 in the UK (mostly around Tenbury Wells and Worcestershire)
- the variant Skirm has a frequency of 0.14 per million in the USA. No connection has yet been found with the early Skirm name in England, though this is possible since there is a cluster with a frequency of 0.49 per million in Massachusetts (the fifth densest after the states of Washington, North Carolina, Arizona and Tennessee).
Distribution
Historically the name Skirm and Skyrm(e) were found in Herefordshire. One branch of the family migrated to Pembrokeshire (Llawhaden) in the mid 1600s. So the historical clusters are found at:
- Herefordshire - Lugwardine, Vowchurch, Hereford, Abbey Dore, Weobley
- Pembrokshire - Penally, Manorbier, Llangwm, Llawhaden
The places page gives links to additional information on these locations. The map above shows the distribution in the 1881 census by Poor Law Union. It is not precise enough to delineate the Manorbier and Llangwm clusters, since members of both clusters had moved into Pembroke and Pembroke Dock by this time.
There were migrations to the coal-mining valleys of Wales in the late 1800s and also Bristol and Cardiff. From Cardiff three brothers emigrated to the USA, and there were later migrations to Australia. Within the UK the highest density of Skyrm(e)s are in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, followed by Pembrokeshire, Lancashire and Glamorgan. As part of this one-name study more detailed distribution tables will be provided from analysis of the data. Because the name is often mis-transcribed by the main ancestry and (possibly) profiler websites, the numbers given for frequency above may not be too accurate.