Middle English forms of Young, q.v.

With hym ther was hfs sone, a yang Squier.—Chaucer, Prol. Cant. Tales, 79.

The surname Young derives from the Old English ‘geong’, meaning ‘young’, and from the Middle English word ‘yong’, or ‘yung’. Initially this name could have been given as a nick­name, either with reference to its bearer’s appearance or, more usually, to distinguish the bearer from his father, who may well have had the same name. In this sense ‘yung’ would mean ‘junior’. This is similar to the modern American use of the word junior (as in, for example, Kurt Vonnegut Jnr). Very occasionally the word is used to distinguish two brothers.

There are many variations on the surname Young. The most frequent of these are Youngs (son of Young), Younge, Yonge and Younger. A frequent compound variation is the name Younghusband. This is an occupational name and has nothing to do with marriage. Here ‘husband’ is used in the sense which remains in our word ‘husbandry’. Thus Younghusband means ‘young farmer’. Youngman is also an occupational name and means ‘young servant’, or simply ‘servant’. To this day, this term is still used occasionally in London clubs to waiters (who are often far from young), and this sense remains in the French word for a waiter, which is ‘garcon’ meaning ‘boy’ or ‘young man’. Another widespread variation is the predictable Youngson, whose meaning is self- evident. The variant Younger occasionally has a less obvious meaning. This is when the name derives from the Middle Dutch word ‘jonghheer’, which means ‘young nobleman’ (much like the similar German word ‘Junker’).

This name is one of the oldest to appear in the records, and references to it go back well before the Norman Conquest.

The earliest mention of a name stemming from this meaning is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the records for Essex. Here, in 744, one Wilferth seo Iunga is mentioned.

The Young—Helmholtz theory explains colour vision as resulting from separate retina fibres for red, green and blue light. The theory is named after Thomas Young (1773—1829) and, of course, Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821—94). Young also established the wave theory of light, and assisted in deciphering the Rosetta Stone.

Jazz great, Lester ‘Pres’ Young, got an early start: at the age of 10 he became a drummer in his father’s New Orleans Show. Switching to the saxophone at 13, he made his name when he started playing with the legendary trumpeter, Joe ‘King’ Oliver, in Kansas City, later joining Count Basie’s band for 10 years. His unique, sparse but buoyant sound triggered a bitter controversy which ranged through the jazz world for 15 years. Young’s long-term love affair with Billie Holiday led to a series of recordings still regarded as masterpieces.

US astronaut John Young joined Virgil Grisson on the first two-man space flight, Gemini 3. Seventeen years later he orbited the moon on the final check-out of the Apollo systems before the successful Apollo 11 flight.

Sir Francis Younghusband (1863—1942), born in India, was a key member of the 1902 expedition which opened Tibet to the Western world. The main purpose of the expedition was to begin trade negotiations; when the first attempt was unsuccessful, the team undiplomatically slaughtered some 600 Tibetans, occupied the capital, Llasa, and forced the concession of a trade treaty on the Dalai Lama. A grateful England knighted Younghusband.

The United Kingdom has one related place name-Young’s End, while Canada has 2 (Young and Youngstown) and the United States has 10 including 5 Youngsvilles. Australia has a town called Young, and so does Uruguay. The name is common for geographic features and sometimes refers to the geologic age of the mountain or body of water so named.

With about 105,000 namesakes Young is the 50th most popular surname in England and Wales. There are over 21,000 Youngs in Scotland where it is 19th in popularity. Young is notably popular in and around Edinburgh where an estimated one in about 185 families bears the name. In descending numerical order, Glasgow, Bristol and Teesside are other Young strongholds. Around the world Youngs are most common in Wellington (one in 361 families), Toronto (one in 509) and Auckland (one in 515). The United States has more Youngs than the entire populations of Southampton and Portsmouth combined-an estimated total of just over 478,000 makes this their 26th most popular surname.