Jung

Etymology

Jung is the German word for “young,” and the surname comes from the same root. The older form is traced to Old High German, and in surname use it typically began as a nickname for a younger man or the younger of two people with the same name. In some records it also appears with slight spelling changes such as Junge or Jungo.

History

The name is common in German-speaking regions and appears in English-language surname dictionaries as a straightforward equivalent of English Young. In migration and record-keeping, it was sometimes Anglicized to Young, especially in countries where German names were adapted to local spelling. Related forms and compounds appear in German surname lists, showing that Jung has long been productive as a surname element.

Origin

Regions

Variant spellings

Fun fact

19th-century surname dictionaries often treated Jung as the German counterpart of English Young, which makes it one of the clearest cross-language surname equivalents.

Related surnames