UK surname
Youngs
A patronymic surname derived from the given name Young, meaning "son of Young" or "descendant of Young."
In the 1881 census there were 1,142 people recorded with the Youngs surname, ranking it #3,505 among surnames in the records. By 2016, the modern count was 1,689, ranked #3,703, down from #3,505 in 1881.
The strongest historical links point to King's Lynn St Margaret, London parishes and Colchester St Botolph, St Mary at the Walls, St Giles, St Mary Magdalen, Holy Trinity, St Runwald, a. In the modern distribution records, the strongest local clusters include Great Yarmouth, Broadland and Norwich.
Across the surname records, the highest recorded count for Youngs is 2,071 in 1911. Compared with 1881, the name has grown by 47.9%.
Historical parish links are strongest around King's Lynn St Margaret, London parishes, Colchester St Botolph, St Mary at the Walls, St Giles, St Mary Magdalen, Holy Trinity, St Runwald, a, Lakenham , Eaton St Andrew, Town Close, St Stephen, St Peter Mancroft, St Giles, St Andrew, St John and Hellesdon, St Mary in the Marsh, St Clement, St Martin at Oak, St Mary at Coslany, St Michael at Cos. These are the places where the surname stands out most clearly in the older records.
The modern local-area list points to Great Yarmouth, Broadland, Norwich, North Norfolk and Ipswich. Treat these as concentration signals, not proof that every family line began there.
Some modern areas include a three-digit suffix, such as Leeds 110. The suffix is a small-area code, so it stays in the table while the prose uses the plain place name.
These neighbourhood labels describe areas, not individual people. They are useful because surnames often cluster through family history, migration, housing patterns and local work. A surname can be strongest in one type of neighbourhood even when people with that name live across the country.
The UK classification gives the national picture. The London classification is more specific to the capital, where housing, age profile, tenure and population mix can look quite different from the rest of the UK.
The surname Youngs originated in England and is derived from the Old English word "geong" or "iung", meaning "young" or "youth". It is believed to have been initially used as a nickname for a young person or to differentiate between a father and son with the same given name.
The name can be traced back to the 12th century, with one of the earliest recorded instances being in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as "Iunga" and "Iunge". These early spellings indicate the name's evolution from its Old English roots.
During the Middle Ages, the surname was primarily found in the counties of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk, where it was commonly used to distinguish individuals within small communities. It is believed that the name may have been derived from the Old English place name "Iungabyrig", which later became Youngs-bury or Youngs-borough.
Notable individuals with the surname Youngs include Sir Peter Youngs (1544-1619), a wealthy merchant and benefactor from Norwich, England, who served as the city's mayor in 1605. Another prominent figure was Sir William Youngs (1693-1751), a British naval officer and Member of Parliament.
In the literary world, Edward Youngs (1683-1765), an English poet and playwright, is best known for his work "Night Thoughts", a series of poems exploring mortality and immortality. His contemporaries included Thomas Youngs (1773-1829), a British mathematician and physician who contributed significantly to the study of optics and the wave theory of light.
Moving into the 19th century, Brigham Youngs (1801-1877) was an influential leader of the Latter-day Saint movement and the founder of Salt Lake City, Utah. His legacy lives on in the Brigham Young University, one of the largest private universities in the United States.
Other notable figures with the Youngs surname include Sir George Youngs (1819-1905), a British civil engineer responsible for designing and constructing the Forth Bridge in Scotland, and Charles Youngs (1834-1908), an American baseball pioneer who helped establish the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.