Geography of Name
1841 Census: Distribution and Frequency
440 individuals on the 1841 census had the Wiffen surname and 57% of them resided in Essex. 77% of all Wiffens in England resided in four counties: Essex (249 individuals), Middlesex/London (36 individuals), Kent (32 individuals), and Norfolk (35 individuals). We can generalize that a person whose surname is spelt Wiffen on the 1841 census, statistically belongs to the Wiffen families of Essex. Essex had less than 50 Wiffen households.
Expanding the analysis to include variant spellings reduces the concentration of Essex. The variant spellings of Wiffen on the 1841 census are Wiffin, Wife, Whiffen, Whiffin, and Whiffing. Accouning for all variant spelings, there are 1,231 Wiffens on the 1841 census, and 30% of them reside in Essex. On the 1841 census, 93% of all Wiffens plus variant spellings reside in eight counties: Essex (30.1%), Middlesex/London (26.2%), Kent (15.8%), Cambridgeshire (5.7%), Norfolk (5.1%), Dorset (3.9%) Hampshire (3.7%), and Suffolk 2.8%). The variant spellings of Whiffen and Whiffin are concentrated in Middlesex/London, Kent, Cambridgeshire, and Hampshire.
The regional footprints where Wiffens plus its variant spellings resided between 1841 and 1881 can be broadly grouped as East Anglia with North Essex (Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and North Essex), Southeast England (south Essex and Kent), and the outliers of Dorset and Hampshire.
The Distribution Map and Pie Chart for the surname Wiffen based on 1841 census of English Counties using your-family-history.com
Between 1841 and 1881
Between 1841 and 1881, the percentage of Wiffens residing in Essex shrank by 6% but grew in Kent by 4.1%. These shifts in population, however, did not materially change the 1841 footprint, implying that Wiffens did not branch out from their base into other parts of England.
As guidance for research, we can generalize that between 1841 and 1881, the surname spelt Wiffen was concentrated in Essex and 72.1% of all Wiffens, including variant spellings, resided in Essex, London, and Kent.
Totals account for Wiffen plus all five of its variant spellings. On the 1841 census, the major variant spelling of Essex is Wiffin (66 individuals), followed by Whiffen (36 individuals).
Wiffens Born before 1800
Digging deeper into the 1841 census, 118 of the Wiffens were born before 1800, and of those the majority resided in Essex, Kent, Suffolk, and Norfolk.
Due to the number of older people alive in 1841 who are residents of Suffolk and Norfolk, the significance of these counties is greater than their percentage of the Wiffen population.
The preponderance of early records originates along the east coast of England, stretching from Suffolk down to Kent. The locus of Wiffen records in Essex before 1650 is a cluster of parishes in the North Border Parishes of Essex between River Stour and River Colne. Unfortunately, we lack enough data points to establish migration patterns between Kent and East Anglia, or between Kent and Dorset. Perhaps shipping and sea travel connects them.