RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The Name Says It All JF Journal of Human Resources FD University of Wisconsin Press SP 711 OP 742 DO 10.3368/jhr.0621-11749R2 VO 59 IS 3 A1 Häner, Melanie A1 Schaltegger, Christoph A. YR 2024 UL http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/59/3/711.abstract AB We analyze multigenerational social mobility by drawing on a novel hand-collected data set from Basel (1550–2019) and using a new surname-based approach. We find an average parent–child persistence of about 0.4 and an average grandparent–child persistence of about 0.2 in a three-generational model applied to a time span of more than 450 years. A cyclical pattern indicates that social mobility was lowest in wartime generations, with spreading afterward. We measure a statistically significant additional influence of the grandparental generation but not of earlier generations. This reveals the importance of multigenerational analyses to examine equal opportunities in society.