Vertical transmission of culture and the distribution of family names

A stochastic model for the evolution of a growing population is proposed, in order to explain empirical power-law distributions in the frequency of family names as a function of the family size. Preliminary results show that the predicted exponents are in good agreement with real data. The evolution of family-name distributions is discussed in the frame of vertical transmission of cultural features. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.