I give below a copy of a message I have just posted to the mailing list of
the Guild of One-Name Studies in UK (GOONS), as part of a thread on Size of
surname study. We dealt with this a few years ago on our list, but I
thought I would mention the subject again as it took me a while to find the
sites again!
Here are sites where you can find estimates of the numbers of
individuals with particular surnames.
http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php
This gives a count of 1627 people called CARDEN in England and Wales in
September 2002. I forget how many were in the 1881 census, but I think the
number has trebled, roughly.
http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/freqnames.html
This gives a count of 8400 people called CARDEN in USA in April 2000
(You have to multiply the percentage given for each name by the US
population on April 1, 2000 of 281,421,906)
I must confess that my one-name study does not make much attempt at full
coverage of USA holders of the surname. I leave that to enthusiasts there,
with whom I keep in touch. My coverage outside USA, such as Australia is
pretty good.
Arthur Carden