DJ_Femme-Tilt t1_ixqt71g wrote on November 25, 2022 at 4:23 PM

When I was young, I was at a bank and I saw that a teller had the last name Patel. I excitedly asked if he was in my classmate's family, since she also had that last name. He laughed kindly and told me "probably not" :)

AlexatOSU t1_ixqxkga wrote on November 25, 2022 at 4:56 PM

Patel is a very common surname in Gujarat, India

DJ_Femme-Tilt t1_ixqxrg5 wrote on November 25, 2022 at 4:58 PM

Yes he explained that to me. :)

wonderbuoy74 t1_ixr0rxx wrote on November 25, 2022 at 5:20 PM

It is actually 19th on the list of common surnames in India, with 4.2 million.

https://forebears.io/india/surnames

Perhaps more common in certain regions, but even still the odds of all 22 having that name is just so low. At least the announcers had a very easy day!

AlexatOSU t1_ixr1c0h wrote on November 25, 2022 at 5:24 PM

I said Gujarat, India though, not all of India.

wonderbuoy74 t1_ixs9n8k wrote on November 25, 2022 at 10:55 PM

And I acknowledged that by saying perhaps it's more concentrated in certain local regions. Show some numbers if you want to argue.

AlexatOSU t1_ixsh1dj wrote on November 25, 2022 at 11:55 PM

My source isn't as numerical as yours, but:

Source: am a Patel

And again, I was talking about Gujarat specifically, not India

spikebrennan t1_iy1xqvz wrote on November 28, 2022 at 3:04 AM

For some reason, Gujarati people are over-represented in the Indian diaspora.

Apparently one third of all motel owners in the United States are named Patel:

https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/04/magazine/a-patel-motel-cartel.html

hamutaro t1_ixt4mmh wrote on November 26, 2022 at 3:23 AM

There’s also a credit union known as Patelco which has nothing to do with anyone named “Patel”. In this case the “Patel” is just a shortened version of Pacific Telecom.