Youd
Youd or Youds (pronounced to rhyme with either "loud" or "food") is a Flemish/French Flemish surname. Those with this surname most certainly emigrated from either France, Belgium or Holland and the name has a lot of Jewish significance and as Jewish people have been nomadic for many years due to religious persecution, it is difficult to ascertain exactly where the name initially originated from.
Description
It was introduced into England during the late 16th century by Flemish Huguenot refugees fleeing religious persecution on the Continent. The name Youd, and its variant forms Youde, Yude and Yeude, are Anglicizations of the Flemish "Jeude", the cognate form of the medieval English personal name "Jude". This was the vernacular form of the Hebrew male given name "Yehuda", Judah, the name of Jacob's eldest son.
The personal name was used only rarely before the Reformation, due to the fame of the apostle Jude, and the popularity of the story of Judas Maccabeus. The phonetic spelling of the Flemish form "Jeude" produced the English variants, found in the north western counties of Lancashire and Cheshire. The surname is recorded in English Church Registers, beginning with marriage records of the 17th century.
The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Jude, which was dated 1211, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Devonshire", during the reign of King John (ruled 1199–1216). Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have changed, resulting in variant spellings.
People with surname Youd
- Samuel Youd, better known by his pseudonym John Christopher, British science fiction writer
- Robert Youds, artist