Surnames and the Y chromosome

A randomly ascertained sample of males with the surname "Sykes" was typed w ith four Y-chromosome microsatellites. Almost half the sample shared the sa me Y-chromosome haplotype, which has not been observed in control samples e ither from the same geographic region of from the United Kingdom as a whole . This points to a single surname founder for extant Sykes males, even thou gh written sources had predicted multiple origins. The distribution of othe r Sykes Y-chromosome haplotypes were not significantly different from those in controls and may be accounted for by the historical accumulation of non paternity during the past 700 years, in which case the average rate estimat e is 1.3%/generation. If this pattern is reproduced with other surnames, it may have important forensic and genealogical applications.