*Yazzie is a surname of Navajo origin, derived from yázhí, meaning “little” or “small,” also “young.”* It preserves an adaptation of a Navajo name element into English spelling. The meaning explains the name's linguistic source; it does not identify a single family from which all bearers descend. See the Yazzie dictionary entry.
The Navajo Word Behind Yazzie
The Dictionary of American Family Names, second edition, explains that the source could be a personal name consisting of yázhí alone or a longer name containing it. Its example is Hastiin Yázhí, interpreted as “Little Man” or “Short Man,” and rendered in English as Hosteen Yazzie. These are related senses within the same Navajo derivation, rather than evidence for separate English origins. Read the dictionary explanation.
Preserve the distinction between yázhí, the Navajo word, and Yazzie, the adapted surname spelling. An etymological reconstruction is not necessarily the exact name written in an ancestor's records. Nor does a descriptive meaning establish the height or age of a later bearer.
How a Name Element Became a Family Name
Theodore Holland Jr.'s study of Navajo naming, based on fieldwork begun in Arizona in 1991, places Yazzie among names created by approximating the sound of Navajo expressions. He describes how schools, census taking, traders, and other institutions imposed English naming conventions. Some interviewees traced an inherited English name to a grandparent's naming at school. See Holland, 1995, pp. 282–283.
Holland's examples include the treatment of a final Navajo name element as a last name, with Yazzie among the resulting surnames. He distinguishes this process from translating a name's meaning and from assigning an unrelated English name. The study documents several routes into inherited surnames, not one naming event for every Navajo family. Compare the three processes on p. 283.
For a particular Yazzie family, the key question is when the name became stable across connected generations. An early appearance of the word or spelling is insufficient: look for records identifying children, parents, and their names over time. The common descriptive element could produce the same written surname independently. A shared spelling alone cannot distinguish that possibility from a shared ancestor.
Yazza, Source Forms, and Comparisons
Yazza is an attested variant of Yazzie. The Dictionary of American Family Names entry reproduced by FamilySearch explicitly identifies it as such. Include Yazza when a search for Yazzie fails, but compare the household, dates, and location before merging results. See the Yazza entry.
The form yázhí is the linguistic source, not simply another interchangeable surname spelling. Likewise, an English phrase such as “Little Man” explains meaning; it is not permission to replace an ancestor's recorded name with a translation. A connection between differently named records needs evidence about the people involved.
Begay offers a useful comparison for the way a Navajo expression could be recorded as a surname. It has its own derivation and is not a variant of Yazzie. Our guide to testing related surname spellings explains how to separate a search possibility from a demonstrated family connection.
Finding the Right Navajo Records
The National Archives' Indian Census Rolls cover 1885–1940, with gaps and differences in the information recorded. Entries may include an Indigenous name, an English name, or both, along with age and family relationships. These features can help connect identities across records, but coverage is not complete for every tribe or year. Read the census-roll research guide.
For Navajo research, the agency and year matter. The Archives' M595 list identifies a Navajo roll for 1915 on microfilm roll 273 and separate Eastern, Northern, Southern, Western Navajo, and Leupp jurisdictions for 1937 on rolls 275–281. Check the listed jurisdiction against the family's known residence before interpreting an unsuccessful search. Consult the Navajo entries in the microfilm roll list.
Use those collections as part of a family-specific search:
- Start with an identified relative. Record spouses, parents, children, approximate birth dates, and the places attached to each source. These details distinguish people who share Yazzie and a given name.
- Read the original image. Copy the entire name and relevant column headings, including any second name. Keep the index transcription separately so that a search error does not become a supposed historical spelling.
- Follow the household through time. Compare relatives and ages in nearby available rolls, then seek birth, marriage, death, or other records that explicitly establish the relationships.
- Investigate naming changes where evidence points to them. If a family account identifies a school or a particular naming episode, look for that institution's surviving records. Do not assume every Yazzie surname originated at school.
- Keep an evidence log. Note the agency, year, roll, image, and relationship actually stated. The surname evidence checklist helps distinguish a documented link from a tentative match.
What the Surname Cannot Establish
Yazzie's Navajo etymology does not by itself prove an individual's ethnicity, clan, tribal citizenship, or ancestral home. The National Archives explains that historical federal rolls served different administrative purposes and that tribes determine their own membership. A surname dictionary cannot substitute for either family documentation or a tribe's citizenship process. See the Archives' guide to tribal rolls.
Our Native American surname guide provides broader context while keeping distinct communities and naming traditions separate.
References
- Patrick Hanks, ed. Dictionary of American Family Names. Second edition, Oxford University Press, 2022, entry Yazzie, reproduced by Ancestry.
- Patrick Hanks, ed. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003; FamilySearch attribution dated 2003, 2006, entry Yazza.
- Theodore Holland Jr. “Words To Live By: Investigating Navajo Naming Practices.” Names 43, no. 4 (December 1995), pp. 275–293, especially pp. 282–283. Article.
- National Archives and Records Administration. Indian Census Rolls, 1885–1940. Research guide reviewed January 22, 2026. Guide.
- National Archives and Records Administration. Indian Census Rolls, 1885–1940. Microfilm publication M595 roll list, updated October 9, 2014; Navajo entries, rolls 272–282. Roll list.
- National Archives and Records Administration. Bureau of Indian Affairs Records: Tribal Rolls, especially “Records Overview” and “Tribal Enrollment Today.” Accessed September 7, 2026. Guide.