How common is the surname Young?

484,447 people in the United States had the surname Young in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 637 Americans. It ranked 32nd of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Young?

Angus Young, Australian guitarist, followed by Loretta Young.

The surnameYoung

A nickname surname, the 32nd most common in the United States.

Pronounced /jʌŋ/ 1 syllable Soundex Y520 Also a first name

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Young is more common than 99.9% of them.

Origin

* As an English, Scottish, and northern Irish surname, from the adjective young, used to distinguish a younger brother or son. This sense is comparable to the surnames le Yunge, German Jong and Junk, Dutch Jong and de Jongh, French Lejeune and LaJeunesse, assimilated from Dion and Guyon. * As a Chinese surname, from the following: ** Cantonese 楊 /杨 (joeng⁴). Doublet of Yeung. ** Hokkien 楊 /杨 (iông / iâng). Doublet of Yu, Yeo, Yeoh. ** Mandarin 楊 /杨 (yáng). Doublet of Yang.

Young is a nickname surname: from a description or nickname of an ancestor.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 484,447 people named Young in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 637 Americans. That is up 4.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 465,948.

#32

rank among US surnames

484,447

people in 2010

164

per 100,000 Americans

+4%

change since 2000 (was #31)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#23	Thompson	664,644	465
#24	White	660,491	467
#25	Harris	624,252	495
#26	Sánchez	612,752	504
#27	Clark	562,679	549
#28	Ramirez	557,423	554
#29	Lewis	531,781	581

Who is named Young

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

66% of people named Young identified as white (not Hispanic), 25% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.0% as Asian and Pacific Islander.

White (not Hispanic) 66%
Black (not Hispanic) 25%
Asian and Pacific Islander 3.0%
Two or more races 2.7%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.8%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Youngs

188 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Angus Young
Australian guitarist, born 1955
Loretta Young
American actress (1913–2000)
Brigham Young
American religious leader, second president of the LDS Church, and governor of Utah Territ, 1801–1877
John Young
American astronaut, naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer (1930–2018)
Michael W. Young
American geneticist, chronobiologist, born 1949
Malcolm Young
Australian guitarist (1953–2017)
Sean Young
American actress, born 1959
Gig Young
American actor (1913–1978)
Burt Young
American actor (1940–2023)
Lester Young
American jazz saxophonist (1909–1959)
Alan Young
British actor (1919–2016)
Kevin Young
American athlete, hurdler, born 1966

Notable Youngs come mostly from the United States (162), Australia (14) and the United Kingdom (5).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Young

Young has the Soundex code Y520, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code Y520.

Questions

Where does the surname Young come from?: * As an English, Scottish, and northern Irish surname, from the adjective young, used to distinguish a younger brother or son. This sense is comparable to the surnames le Yunge, German Jong and Junk, Dutch Jong and de Jongh, French Lejeune and LaJeunesse, assimilated from Dion and Guyon. * As a…
How common is the surname Young?: 484,447 people in the United States had the surname Young in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 637 Americans. It ranked 32nd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Young?: In the 2010 Census, 66% of people named Young identified as white (not Hispanic), and 25% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Young?: Angus Young, Australian guitarist, followed by Loretta Young.