# Tennant (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/tennant/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname originating as an occupation.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 8,693 |
| US rank (2010) | 4,085 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 35,517 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.7% (8,304 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Tennent |

## Etymology

From tenant, an occupational surname.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Tennant in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 88% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 7.6% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.0% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.5% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Tennant in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

## People named Tennant

- Smithson Tennant, British chemist (1761-1815)
- Andy Tennant, American filmmaker, actor, and dancer (born 1955)
- Victoria Tennant, British actress
- Dorothy Tennant, British artist (1855-1926)
- Kylie Tennant, Australian historian and writer

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.