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The surname Tinsley

An English place surname, carried by 15,442 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex T524 Also a first name

Tinsley: #2,361 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Tinsley #2,361, 15,442 people Tinsley: #2,361 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Tinsley #2,361, 15,442 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Tinsley is more common than 98.5% of them.

Origin

English origin

From the unattested Old English personal name *Tynni + -s- + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”).

Tinsley is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 15,442 people named Tinsley in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 19,994 Americans. That is up 4.1% since 2000, when the Census counted 14,834.

#2,361
rank among US surnames
15,442
people in 2010
5.2
per 100,000 Americans
+4.1%
change since 2000 (was #2,255)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#2,352Borden15,50019,919
#2,354Nagy15,49719,923
#2,355Chatman15,47319,954
#2,356Dow15,47219,955
#2,357Carlos15,46219,968
#2,358Antonio15,46119,969
#2,359McKinnon15,45019,984

Who is named Tinsley

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

63% of people named Tinsley identified as white (not Hispanic), 31% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.6% as two or more races.

  • White (not Hispanic) 63%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 31%
  • Two or more races 2.6%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Tinsleys

4 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Michael Tinsley
    American hurdler, born 1984
  • Jamaal Tinsley
    American basketball player (born 1978)
  • Marion Tinsley
    American checkers player (1927–1995)
  • Boyd Tinsley
    American musician, born 1964

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Tinsley

Tinsley has the Soundex code T524, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code T524.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Tinsley come from?
From the unattested Old English personal name *Tynni + -s- + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”).
How common is the surname Tinsley?
15,442 people in the United States had the surname Tinsley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 19,994 Americans. It ranked 2,361st of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Tinsley?
In the 2010 Census, 63% of people named Tinsley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 31% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Tinsley?
Michael Tinsley, American hurdler, followed by Jamaal Tinsley.
Where is the surname Tinsley most common?
Wikidata records people named Tinsley in the United States.
What type of surname is Tinsley?
Tinsley is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Tinsley getting more or less common?
More common. 14,834 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 15,442 in 2010, up 4.1%.
Is Tinsley also a first name?
Yes. Tinsley is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.