Young

surname · Latin script

Meaning: (i) a distinguishing name for the younger of two people with the same personal name, especially a son; (ii) an anglicization of other surnames

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/jʌŋ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Young is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country, where it is the 30th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • NZNew Zealand≈1 in 579(inferred from the name graph)
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 594
  • AUAustralia≈1 in 612

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

484,447 people, 2010

#174 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

3 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
650 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

1 in 236 (inferred from the name graph)

St. Vincent & Grenadines

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

YoungLatin(measured from records)
యంగTelugu(measured from records)
იანგიGeorgian(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

(i) a distinguishing name for the younger of two people with the same personal name, especially a son; (ii) an anglicization of other surnames.

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.

Often considered alongside

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Young, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Young counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Young is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States#30484,4471 in 687484KYoung650
GB United Kingdom#31≈110,000 est.≈1 in 59418Young368
CA Canada#20≈56,000 est.≈1 in 669—Young315
IT Italy#35≈43,000 est.≈1 in 1.4K—Young81
AU Australia#21≈42,000 est.≈1 in 6121Young308
NZ New Zealand#21≈8,500 est.≈1 in 579—Young170
IS Iceland#66≈570 est.≈1 in 6155Young12
VC St. Vincent & Grenadines—4301 in 236430—10

484,447 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present); Electoral Office of St Vincent & the Grenadines — Final Voters List (Nov 2025); Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Young is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Korean given name66 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in South Korea, United States, United Kingdom, Canada

    Languages: Korean, English, German

    Also written 영주, 영우, 영재, Yeong, 영오

  • a separate name2 spellings in the group
  • Spanish surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico

  • French surname12 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Canada, United Kingdom

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Yoùng, Yôùng, Ÿôûng, Yoüng, Ÿöuñg

  • Portuguese surname8 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Portugal

    Also written Yoüng, Ýöúñg, Ýõûñg, Ýõûňg, Yôüñg

  • Chinese surname17 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, China, Taiwan

    Also written Yṏuṉg, Yoüñg, Ýoűng, Younğ, Ÿôùñg

  • Hindi surname6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India

    Languages: Hindi, Urdu

    Also written Yôung, Ŷőúńg, Yöung, Yôûñg

103 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Young is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, From Scots/Latin juvenile nickname ‘young’; recorded as Malmor dictus Juvenis in a Dumbarton document, 1271, and John Young of Dyngvale in 1342.

    as a nameScottish Surnames

  • In English, from OE geong ‘young’; first attested Wilferð seo Iunga 744 ASC E

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

  • In English, togbe = doghe ; the younger, itogbei; njio, young or little; to be young, yidngo

    as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language

  • In English, In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Irish, A very numerous name especially in Ulster. It is occasionally a translation of the epithet óg. Bibl; App

    as a nameThe Surnames of Ireland

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

1700180019002000Thomas Young, b. 1773Brigham Young, b. 1801Lester Young, b. 1909John Young, b. 1930Burt Young, b. 1940Neil Young, b. 1945Angus Young, b. 1955Michelle Yeoh, b. 1962Dre, b. 1965Ashley Young, b. 1985
  • Thomas Youngb. 1773GBEnglish polymath (1773-1829)
  • Brigham Youngb. 1801USAmerican religious leader (1801–1877)
  • Lester Youngb. 1909USAmerican jazz saxophonist (1909–1959)
  • John Youngb. 1930USAmerican astronaut, naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer (1930–2018)
  • Burt Youngb. 1940USAmerican actor (1940–2023)
  • Neil Youngb. 1945CACanadian singer, songwriter and filmmaker (born 1945)
  • Angus Youngb. 1955GBAustralian guitarist
  • Michelle Yeohb. 1962MYnot in their usual nameMalaysian actress (born 1962)
  • Dreb. 1965USnot in their usual nameAmerican rapper, record producer, record executive, and actor
  • Ashley Youngb. 1985GBEnglish association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them(machine-generated)

FormalDear Young,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 84 sources across 43 countries.

Official registers attesting Young
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010484K#32
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20202020469K#34
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000466K#31
VC St. Vincent & GrenadinesElectoral Office of St Vincent & the Grenadines — Final Voters List (Nov 2025)2025430#38

Reference works 8

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What are other forms of the name Young?
In the etymology graph, Jung and Junge are forms of the same name in other languages.
What does the name Young mean, and where does it come from?
(i) a distinguishing name for the younger of two people with the same personal name, especially a son; (ii) an anglicization of other surnames. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
How do you pronounce Young?
A machine transcription gives /jʌŋ/ (IPA) for English.
In which country does Young have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 484 thousand people named Young, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled young.
Where is Young most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Young is densest in St. Vincent & Grenadines — about 1 in 236 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
How common is the name Young?
In the United States, the national register counted 484,447 people named Young in 2010, about 1 in 687 residents.
How common is Young compared with other names?
In the United States, Young is the 30th most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Young?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/young

The payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Young” — the 30th most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Young parses inside a full name →