Surname complex network for Brazil and Portugal

G.D. Ferreira, G.M. Viswanathan, L.R. da Silva and H.J. Herrmann

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2018, vol. 499, issue C, 198-207

Abstract: We present a study of social networks based on the analysis of Brazilian and Portuguese family names (surnames). We construct networks whose nodes are names of families and whose edges represent parental relations between two families. From these networks we extract the connectivity distribution, clustering coefficient, shortest path and centrality. We find that the connectivity distribution follows an approximate power law. We associate the number of hubs, centrality and entropy to the degree of miscegenation in the societies in both countries. Our results show that Portuguese society has a higher miscegenation degree than Brazilian society. All networks analyzed lead to approximate inverse square power laws in the degree distribution. We conclude that the thermodynamic limit is reached for small networks (3 or 4 thousand nodes). The assortative mixing of all networks is negative, showing that the more connected vertices are connected to vertices with lower connectivity. Finally, the network of surnames presents some small world characteristics.

Keywords: Complex network; Family names; Centrality; Assortative mixing; Entropy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:499:y:2018:i:c:p:198-207

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2018.02.008

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