Young History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Young

What does the name Young mean?

The name Young has a history dating as far back as the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It was a name for a person who was very young, from the Old English word yong and yung and was first bestowed on the younger of two bearers of the same personal name, usually a son who was named for his father.

Early Origins of the Young family

The surname Young was first found in Essex, where the first record of the name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Wilfer seo lunga in 744. Many years later Walter Yonge was listed in the Subsidy Rolls for Sussex in 1296. 1

Another reference lists Hugh le Yunge in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 as residing in Oxfordshire. The same rolls list Ralph le Younge in Staffordshire and later William le Yunge in Northumberland during the reign of Edward I. 2

Down in Devon, Honiton was “for a long period it was very much of a family borough. Members of the Yonge family sat almost continuously from 1640 to 1796.” 3