The surname Yeo is derived from an old word for stream or river, see The origin of the surname.
This study of the surname is registered with the Guild of One-name Studies and with The Surname Society. The registration with the Guild includes the variants Atyeo [note 1], Yea, Yaw and Yoe [note 2]. For more information about these variants see ‘Surname variants’ in the ‘Pedigrees and research’ menu.
The study includes many other spellings of the surname, which mainly arose in the period before widespread literacy, see Further surname variants.
Also included are:
– people who were given Yeo or a variant as a forename, for example Yeo Avery, Yeo Simmons, Benjamin Yeo Westaway, Jane Yeo Philpot, Roscoe Yeo Conklin
– people who had Yeo or a variant as part of a hyphenated surname, for example Arthur Thomas Amos-Yeo, Frederick Hussey-Yeo, William Yeo-Edwards
– people who changed their surname to Yeo or a variant, typically when their mother married or re-married [note 3]
– women who acquired the surname Yeo or a variant by marriage (more than 1300 in England and Wales).
The following variants are excluded from the study:
– The surname Van Yea or Vanyea in the United States
– The forename Yaw from Ghana, often given to boys born on a Thursday
– The surname Yaw in Scotland
– The surname Yaw in the United States, which appears to be a variant of an unrelated German surname – see Germany?
– The surnames Yeo (sometimes written as Yang), Yeoh, Yee and Yaw found in families of Chinese and Korean origin in many parts of the world
– The surnames Yoe and Yohe from Pennsylvania, which appear to be variants of an unrelated German surname – see Pennsylvania.
The surname Yeo in Mexico is included, even though it might be a variant of a Spanish surname – see Mexico.
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Notes
1. See The origin of the surname.
2. The variant Yoe has rarely been used since the early 19th century. For England and Wales there have been no birth, marriage or death registrations since the 1970s – see Analysis of censuses for England and Wales and ‘Yoe in England and Wales’ (under ‘Surname variants’ in the ‘Pedigrees and research’ menu). In the United States, 18 births, 23 marriages and 21 deaths have been recorded with the surname Yoe – see under the ‘Birth, marriage and death records’ menu.
3. For examples see A Yeo who was not a Yeo.