The following statistics are the result of my study of the IGI from which I have estimated the number of Robinson entries per 10,000 overall IGI entries. This should give a reasonable estimate of the number of Robinsons per 10,000 population during the period covered by the IGI. The research shows the extent to which the name is Northern in its origins, with the highest densities in the far northern counties of Westmoreland (220 per 10,000 population), Durham (149) and Cumberland (132). The name becomes less common as one travels south, and is really quite rare in the South-West, e.g. Devon (3 per 10,000 population), Cornwall (2) and Dorset (1).
The details by county, within region, also including Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands are as follows:
North
85 Northumberland
132 Cumberland
149 Durham
220 Westmoreland
96 Yorkshire
57 Lancashire
63 Cheshire
9 Isle of Man
Midlands
48 Derbyshire
67 Nottinghamshire
48 Leicestershire
30 Rutland
24 Warwickshire
81 Northamptonshire
Northern Home Counties
22 Oxfordshire
29 Buckinghamshire
46 Bedfordshire
23 Hertfordshire
17 Berkshire
31 London & Middlesex
West
17 Shropshire
41 Staffordshire
13 Herefordshire
28 Worcestershire
10 Gloucestershire
3 Wales
3 Monmouthshire
32 Ireland
East Anglia
76 Lincolnshire
14 Norfolk
33 Huntingdonshire
22 Cambridgeshire
21 Suffolk
13 Essex
South-east
20 Hampshire
23 Surrey
16 Kent
15 Sussex
South-west
4 Wiltshire
1 Dorset
3 Somerset
3 Devon
2 Cornwall
14 Channel Islands
In recent times, of course, the mobility of the population has resulted in the name Robinson being far more evenly spread around the country. An analysis carried out in 1980 suggested there were then about 194,000 Robinsons in England and Wales (approximately 41 occurrences per 10,000 of population), making it the fourteenth most common surname. There were still regional variations at this time, with the highest concentration being around Teeside (79 occurrences per 10,000 population), followed by Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield. At the same time, there were about 508,000 Robinsons in USA, where it was the twenty-second most common surname, while in each of Sydney, Auckland and Wellington, there were about 19 Robinsons per 10,000 population.
There are no towns in the United Kingdom with the name of Robinson, though there are several in Australia and South Africa, and two in each of Canada and USA.
Please contact me by e-mail if you think you have any interests in common with mine.