In the Liverpool Champion’s distribution area, the list was headed by Nguyen, followed by Tran, Smith, Le, Pham, Kumar, Williams, Prasad, Lee, and Ali.

In the South West Rural Advertiser’s distribution area Smith topped the list, followed by Singh, Jones, Williams, Lee, Vella, Brown, Kumar, Wilson and Nguyen.

Admittedly these lists may not be a true snapshot of who we are in Liverpool and surrounding areas, because the names only account for those who list their numbers in the phone book.

Which raises another point – in an age where we rely on our mobile phones more than landlines, who puts their private number in the phonebook anymore?

I know I don’t. I don’t even have a landline, my mobile is my all-rounder phone, and I would argue many other ‘gen Y’s’ are the same.

So, does that mean the people who have their numbers in the phone book, are of older generations because they don’t rely on mobiles as much as us younger people?

Or does the type of number you list have nothing to do with it – is a number a number regardless of it being a landline or mobile?

I have never even thought of listing myself in the phonebook. It might be because as a younger person I tend to move around a lot, or it might be because I don’t own my own home. To be honest, I had never thought about it until now.

I’m not sure I would list myself, actually. All the people who need to contact me, know my number. And if someone wants my number, they could probably call me at work or get it through a friend.

But back to the list of names. The Liverpool names feature four Vietnamese surnames, which didn’t surprise me or the people I interviewed. I read that about 40 per cent of Vietnamese people have Nguyen, which appears in both areas, as a surname. Incidentally, I just came back from a week in Vietnam, and was amused at how often I saw the word Nguyen pop up on street signs and shop fronts.