Among his honors are a Linnean Medal for zoology from the Linnean Society of London, awarded in 1973. He was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Science) by the University of Bath in 1974. The chair of the Anatomy Department at University College London is named the J. Z. Young Chair in his honour. For many years, Young spent the summer experimenting season at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples. In 1991, the city awarded him honorary citizenship, and the President of the Stazione Zoologica awarded him its Gold Medal. That year he was also invited by the Italian Biological Society to give an anniversary lecture, as the society's oldest living member; for this lecture, Young picked the same subject he had talked about 63 years earlier, in 1928.