This study of the surname – established by Sheila Yeo in 1994 – is registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies and with The Surname Society. Its purpose is to provide and exchange information about the Yeo surname, which is derived from an old word for stream or river: see The origin of the surname.
The Guild defines a One-Name Study as ‘Research into the genealogy and family history of all persons with the same surname and its variants’. The registration of the Yeo study with the Guild includes these four variants:
– Atyeo, an early form of the surname
– Yea, widely used
– Yaw, widely used
– Yoe, rarely used since the early 19th century [notes 1, 2].
This study includes many other spellings of the surname, which mainly arose in the period before widespread literacy – for more information about these variants, see in the ‘Pedigrees and research’ menu, the pages under ‘Surname variants’ and Further surname variants.
Also included in the study are:
– people who were given Yeo or a variant as a forename: more than 200 in England and Wales (including Benjamin Yeo Westaway, Blanche Yea Hicks, Edith Yeo Lillicrap, Elizabeth Yeo Tolley, Gerald Sydney Yeo Lee, Gerald Yeo Hills, Jane Yeo Philpot, Katherine Eliza Yeo Furborrow, Susanna Yea Beard, Thomas Yeo Comer, Thomas Yeo Harris, Yeo Avery and Yeo Simmons), seven in Australia (including Harry Fraser Yeo Marshall and Max Lennon Yeo Hebden) and six in Canada (including Roscoe Yeo Conklin and Wilfred Yeo Mountain) [note 3]
– people who had Yeo or a variant as part of a hyphenated surname, including Arthur Thomas Amos-Yeo, Frederick James Hussey-Yeo and William Yeo-Edwards
– people who changed their surname to Yeo or a variant, typically when their mother married or re-married [note 4]
– women who acquired the surname Yeo or a variant by marrying (more than 1,300 in England and Wales)
– Frederick John Densumbe Yeo, who acquired the surname Yeo for no obvious reason.
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Notes
1. Many of the early English settlers called Yeo in North America had their surname recorded as Yoe. See, for example, the pedigree for John Yeo – the first Anglican minister in Maryland.
2. In England and Wales, there have been no Yoe birth, marriage or death registrations since the 1970s. See the pages under ‘Yoe in England and Wales’ (in the ‘Pedigrees and research’ menu, under ‘Surname variants’) and Analysis of censuses for England and Wales.
3. For more examples, go to the Index and enter ‘Yeo’ or ‘Yea’ in the Forename(s) filter.
4. For examples, see Not born a Yeo. There are also instances of someone born with the surname Yeo changing their surname when their mother changed hers, including Elizabeth Yeo, who became Elizabeth Thorne when her mother Ann Yeo married, and Herbert Yeo, who became Herbert Smith when his mother Annie Yeo née Cooper re-married.