[Loughla]

I guess, it depends on your definition of 'very small town'. My closest city center is 100k, and there definitely are names associated with 'those'. They tend to be names associated with lower-income folks who have run-ins with the law.

For example - we recently hired an entry level position, and one of the search committee members tried to veto a candidate because of her last name. This name is one that comes from the wrong side of the tracks, and is quite a poor family. Nothing about this young lady indicated anything but an ability to do the job well, but the committee member just "didn't trust an [last name here]".

That was a fun conversation.

It's absolutely prevalent in smaller towns. Where I grew up the population was 40k, with smaller towns (<1000) around. If you didn't have a good name there, you absolutely were left out. This is actually why I moved away - my family is poor, like dirt floor, outhouse poor. I tried to climb some ladders in the area, and kept getting stopped when I tried to go past bottom level manager.

As soon as I moved, I was fast-tracked up the organization. I have to imagine it's based on my name around my home town.