5 Two studies yield the following estimates of Scottish and Irish surnames in the census of 1790.

State

McDonald

Purvis

Me.

20.8

17.4

N.H.

20.8

15.7

Vt.

18.6

14.5

Mass.

15.0

10.5

R.I.

16.9

13.1

Conn.

11.3

8.3

N.Y.

21.0

17.1

N.J.

n.a.

14.3

Pa.

36.9

29.8

Del.

n.a.

21.8

Md.

31.6

26.5

Va.

32.2

24.4

N.C.

40.9

32.3

s.c.

44.6

36.5

Ga.

n.a.

26.9

Ky.

n.a.

33.8

Tenn.

n.a.

35.3

In addition, during the mid-18th century at least one-fourth (or more) of all English settlers in the backcountry came from six northern counties. If we average the estimates of Purvis and McDonald and add 25% of the English population, then the combined total of Scottish, Protestant Irish and northern English settlers was more than 51% of whites in North Carolina, and more than 53% in South Carolina, ca. 1790. These data refer to entire colonies including coastal districts; in the backcountry, the proportion was above 60%. See Forrest McDonald and Ellen Shapiro McDonald, “The Ethnic Origins of the American People, 1790,” WMQ3 38 (1980), 179-99; Purvis, “The European Ancestry of the United States Population, 1790,” 85-101; John B. Sanderlin, “Ethnic Origins of Early Kentucky Land Grantees,” KSHSR 85 (1987), 103-10.