How common is the surname Tennant?

8,693 people in the United States had the surname Tennant in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 35,517 Americans. It ranked 4,085th of 162,253 surnames.

Who is the most famous person named Tennant?

Smithson Tennant, British chemist (1761-1815), followed by Andy Tennant.

Where is the surname Tennant most common?

Wikidata records people named Tennant in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom and 1 other country.

Is the surname Tennant getting more or less common?

More common. 8,304 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,693 in 2010, up 4.7%.

The surname Tennant

An occupational surname, carried by 8,693 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex T553

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Tennant is more common than 97.5% of them.

Origin

From tenant, an occupational surname.

Tennant is an occupational surname: named after the work an ancestor did.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 8,693 people named Tennant in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 35,517 Americans. That is up 4.7% since 2000, when the Census counted 8,304.

#4,085

rank among US surnames

8,693

people in 2010

3.0

per 100,000 Americans

+4.7%

change since 2000 (was #3,930)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#4,076	Santoro	8,713	35,435
#4,078	Lanning	8,711	35,443
#4,079	Plascencia	8,710	35,447
#4,080	Burkhardt	8,707	35,459
#4,081	Autry	8,704	35,472
#4,082	Slattery	8,695	35,508
#4,084	Testa	8,694	35,512

Who is named Tennant

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

88% of people named Tennant identified as white (not Hispanic), 7.6% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.0% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

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

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Tennants

5 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Smithson Tennant
British chemist (1761-1815)
Andy Tennant
American filmmaker, actor, and dancer (born 1955)
Victoria Tennant
British actress, born 1950
Dorothy Tennant
British artist (1855-1926)
Kylie Tennant
Australian historian and writer, 1912–1988

Notable Tennants come mostly from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (2), the United States (1) and the United Kingdom (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Tennent

Tennant has the Soundex code T553, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code T553.

Questions

Where does the surname Tennant come from?: From tenant, an occupational surname.
How common is the surname Tennant?: 8,693 people in the United States had the surname Tennant in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 35,517 Americans. It ranked 4,085th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Tennant?: In the 2010 Census, 88% of people named Tennant identified as white (not Hispanic), and 7.6% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Tennant?: Smithson Tennant, British chemist (1761-1815), followed by Andy Tennant.
Where is the surname Tennant most common?: Wikidata records people named Tennant in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the United States and the United Kingdom and 1 other country.
What type of surname is Tennant?: Tennant is an occupational surname, named after the work an ancestor did.
Is the surname Tennant getting more or less common?: More common. 8,304 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 8,693 in 2010, up 4.7%.
What are other spellings of Tennant?: Tennent.