A Schumpeter Hotel? Surname status Inequality and Persistence in Sweden, 1880–2015

Conventional social mobility research misses substantial inequalities of opportunity. To capture intergenerational persistence of family social status, we need to move beyond parent-child associations in occupation or income. We study the inheritance of surname status as a group-level process, using full-count population data for Sweden between 1880 and 2015 and surname types reflecting pre-industrial social strata. Our analyses show that social stratification by surnames occurs primarily at the level of surname types associated with pre-industrial social strata, rather than at the level of individual lineages, especially before 1950. Surname status inequality is remarkably high in 1880 but declines substantially by 2015. Surname status persistence, on the other hand, is nearly as high in the modern Swedish welfare state as in preindustrial times. Surname groups converge in status at a slow rate, with differences persisting over at least six generations. Structural transformation and the emergence of the welfare state have only implied a limited decline in surname status persistence. As a group, families with an agricultural or working-class surname backgrounds (patronyms) experience a persistent disadvantage, while noble and educated surnames display a persistent advantage. Hence, surname status persistence is not only an elite phenomenon but shapes patterns of intergenerational persistence across social classes.