Origin & History

Descriptive surname derived from Old English 'geong' and Old Norse 'ungr', both meaning 'young'. It originally distinguished a younger member of a family — typically a son from a father bearing the same given name — serving the same differentiating function as modern suffixes like 'Junior'. In Scottish Gaelic territories it also served as a translation of the Gaelic 'MacOg' (son of the young man). Young is broadly distributed across England and Scotland with particular concentrations in the Scottish Borders and Northumberland.