ELIZABETH YEO

The usual spelling of Elisabeth in English. It is recorded in the medieval period, but was made popular by being borne by Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603). In the 20th century it again became extremely fashionable, partly because it was the name of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900–2002), who in 1936 became Queen Elizabeth as the wife of King George VI, and after his death in 1952 achieved great public affection as Queen Mother for nearly half a century. Even more influentially, it is the name of her daughter Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926).

English (chiefly Devon and Somerset): habitational name from any of several minor places in Somerset and Devon named with southwestern Middle English ya or yo (Old English ēa ‘stream’, ‘river’, the same word as found in Nye, Rye, and Tye).