Excerpted from "Surnames in the United States Census of 1790", copyrighted 1969 by the Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore
TYPES OF NAMES ACCORDING TO FAVOR
...
"Among the names studied by Farr there are illustrations of the operation
of American favor and disfavor. Davis and Moore, already
spoken of, were popular names; Davies, Bennett, Hughes,
and Griffiths were in disfavor. Both sets are therefore avoided
as indicators of English blood.
"Favor and disfavor are unstable. Bennett and Hughes, for example, were in temporary disfavor at the time of the first census, having developed a large number of variants, not all of which were of immigrant origin, thus causing the natural English forms to appear in low ratio. Americans subsequently returned to the English usage in spelling these names."