Yong

Family name origins & meanings

• Americanized spelling of Dutch Jong.
• Chinese : from the name of the state of Yong, which was granted to the thirteenth son of the virtuous duke Wen Wang (1231–1135 bc). The son also received the title Earl of Yong, and his descendants adopted Yong as their surname.
• Korean : there are two characters and two clans associated with the Yong surname; one is too rare to be treated here. The other claims its origins in prehistoric tribal Korea. In this early period, tribes would assume the names of animals. It is said that the Yong surname (which means ‘dragon’) came into being when the tiger tribe wished to avoid being named after a man-eating beast. The first recorded ancestor was an official in the court of the Koryŏ king Wŏn-jong (1260–73).