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 and aims to fulfil the Guild guideline of being the centre for exchanging information about the Yeo surname.
The registration with the Guild includes these four variants:
– Atyeo, a very early form of the name [note 1]
– Yea, widely used
– Yaw, widely used
– Yoe, rarely used since the early 19th century [note 2].
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’. This study includes many other spellings of the surname, which mainly arose in the period before widespread literacy – for more information about Yeo variants see under ‘Surname variants’ in the ‘Pedigrees and research’ menu and Further surname variants.
Also included are:
– People who were given Yeo or a variant as a forename: more than 200 in England and Wales (including Yeo Avery, Yeo Simmons, Benjamin Yeo Westaway, Katherine Eliza Yeo Furborrow, Edith Yeo Lillicrap, Gerald Sydney Yeo Lee and Jane Yeo Philpot), 7 in Australia (including Harry Fraser Yeo Marshall and Max Lennon Yeo Hebden) and 6 in Canada (including Roscoe Yeo Conklin and Wilfred Yeo Mountain)
– People who had Yeo or a variant as part of a hyphenated surname (for example Arthur Thomas Amos-Yeo, Frederick James Hussey-Yeo, William Yeo-Edwards)
– People who changed their surname to Yeo or a variant, typically when their mother married or re-married (for examples see Not born a Yeo; there are also instances of someone born with the surname Yeo who changed their surname when their mother married or re-married, including Herbert Yeo, 1896–1993, who changed his surname to Smith when his mother Annie Yeo née Cooper re-married)
– Women who acquired the surname Yeo or a variant by marrying (more than 1,300 in England and Wales).
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Notes
1. See The origin of the surname.
2. For England and Wales (as of 2025) there have been no Yoe 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 (as of 2025), 18 births, 23 marriages and 21 deaths have been recorded with the surname Yoe – see under the ‘Birth, marriage and death records’ menu.