Is the last name "Mayo" a Jewish name?

Question

Thanks!

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Only ask the question once.  Give us a chance to answer and let Yahoo catch up

You don't have to ask 3 times like you have

Answer 3

We get this question about a name many times a day.

Any name can be Jewish.  A lot of names in the U.S. get identified as Jewish as a large portion of immigrants to this country had those names while back in their home countries they were used by Jews and non Jews alike.  You have to understand most people in Europe did not have a surname until the last melennium.  

Also consider the fact that a person gets their surname from the father.  However, Orthodox and Conservative Judaism defines a Jew by the mother not the father.

They state they get the nation from the mother and the tribe from the father and if they don't have a Jewish father they belong to the tribe of the nearest male relative on the mother's side of the family.  Whereas if they don't have a Jewish mother, they aren't considered Jewish.

Reform Judaism views it differently.

Answer 4

http://www.ancestry.com/facts/Mayo-name-...

No

Answer 5

Surname: Mayo

Recorded as Mayhow, Mayhew, Mayo, Mayhou, Mayho, Mayow and others, this is an English surname but of either Hebrew or French origins. It is a nickname form of the very popular medieval personal name Matthew, but probably through the Norman-French pre 9th century version of Mahieu. Whether directly from Matthew or indirectly through Mahieu, the name was introduced into England by (in the main) the Normans after the famous conquest of 1066, and in particular, the 12th century crusaders, returning from the Holy Land. It became the fashion for these warriors and pilgrims to name their later children with biblical names in honour of their fathers undoubted bravery in even setting off for the Middle East in the first place, let alone taking part in the fierce fighting to free Jerusalem from the infidel. Early examples of the later surname taken from surviving rolls, registers and charters of the medieval period include: Geoffrey Mahou, in the tax rolls of the county of Berkshire in the year 1240, John Mahyw and William Mahu both in the Subsidy Rolls for the county of Sussex in 1296, and William Mayhew in the court rolls of the city of Colchester, Essex in the year 1351. Later recordings taken from surviving early church registers include: May Mayou, who married Joesph Chamberlin at Budbrooke, Warwick, on January 14th 1735, and William Mayhow who married Mary Ratcliffe in London on March 10th 1748. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.