When you compare last names of MLB players you see a lot of similar names. When you compare last names of Pro-football players you see similar names. But comparing both groups, there appears to be no similar names. Granted this is my casual observation, and not scientific. But, it seems to hold up. And it may be true for other sports. Ideas/comments?
One reason, I think, is there are substantially more foreign-born MLB players than NFL players.
Ever notice a preponderance of French names in the NHL; I wonder why?
Moved to the Game Room from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The NFL has many more African-American players than MLB, whose surnames are mostly of English origin and from the southern US. It also has a significant number of Samoans.
MLB has many more Hispanic and Asian players than the NFL.
If your observation has any validity, that probably accounts for a lot of it.
Chico said,“Baseball… been berra berra good… to me.”
Jackson (Bo) and Sanders (Deion) played in both the NFL and MLB.
Just saying.
Yes. The distribution of names reflects the ethnic distribution of players.
Most common surnames in MLB, 2012:
Rodriguez, Johnson, Gonzalez, Martinez, Sanchez, Davis
Most common surnames in NFL 2012:
Williams, Smith, Brown, Johnson, Jones, Thomas
Most common surnames in NBA 2011-12:
Williams, Johnson, Smith, Jones, Davis, Brown
Most common surnames in NHL 2011-12:
Smith, Johnson, Jones, O’Reilly, Wilson, Carter
Not really… most common French name I found was Gillies, with three active players. The “foreign” names with more than two players active last year were: Kostitsyn, Bourque, Kassian, Gillies, Staal, Palmieri. There are lots of singlets, but probably a lot more eastern European names than French.
I found exactly 2 active MLB players with Thomas as their last name: Clete Thomas & Justin Thomas, and only one Williams, Jerome. Only 5 Smiths, and 4 Joneses (yes, Chipper and Andruw and 2 scrubs). Wow-that’s a lot fewer than I thought I’d find. In the NFL, I get 30 Joneses (+ one Jones-Drew), 45 Williamses, and 41 Smiths, which is tiny bit misleading since NFL rosters are about twice the size of MLB ones, but still.
Just curious: when you say “most common”, how many men are we talking about with, say, the most-common name in each league?
Re: the French names in the NHL: Leaffan’s observation that there are a lot of French names in the NHL is still possible in aggregate even if none of individual French names are very common per se.
There were 18 players named Rodriguez in MLB this season. There are 25 active NFL playersnamed Williams, and seven NBA players named Williams.
When you consider the differences in roster sizes, the totals are pretty much in line.
Perhaps, but I think the number of players with French ancestry is over-estimated. There were 65 players in the NHL who were born in Quebec (roughly 6 percent), but 58 from Sweden, 47 from the Czech Republic… two-to-three times as many Europeans as francophones.
I certainly wouldn’t consider it a “preponderance” of French names. Roughly 75% of the league is from the US or English-speaking Canada.