Find out how popular the last name Tanis is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Tanis.

Tanis, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Tanis surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Tanis in America

Tanis is the 13010th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Tanis surname appeared 2,359 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Tanis.

We can also compare 2010 data for Tanis to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Tanis

The surname Tanis is believed to have originated in the Netherlands, with its earliest known references dating back to the 16th century. The name is thought to derive from the Dutch word "tanne," meaning a fir tree or pine tree, suggesting that the original bearers of this surname may have lived near a dense forest or worked with timber.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the Tanis surname appears in a Dutch census record from the city of Amsterdam in 1587, where a man named Pieter Tanis is listed as a resident. This suggests that the name was already well-established in the Netherlands by the late 16th century.

During the 17th century, the Tanis surname began to spread beyond the Netherlands as Dutch settlers and traders ventured to other parts of the world, including the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) and the Dutch colonies in North America, such as New Amsterdam (later renamed New York).

In the United States, the Tanis surname can be traced back to the early 17th century, when Dutch settlers arrived in the New Netherland colony. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name in America is Johannes Tanis, who was born in 1650 in New Amsterdam.

Another notable figure bearing the Tanis surname was Jacob Tanis, a Dutch sailor and explorer who accompanied Willem Blaeu on his voyage to the East Indies in the early 1600s. Tanis played a crucial role in mapping the coastlines of various islands in the region, and his contributions were recognized in the naming of several geographical features, such as Tanis Island in modern-day Indonesia.

In the 19th century, the Tanis surname gained prominence in the field of archaeology with the discoveries of French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. In 1866, Mariette uncovered the remains of the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, which is believed to have been the capital of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties. Although the city's name is not directly related to the surname, the association between the two has added an intriguing layer to the history of the Tanis name.

Other notable individuals with the Tanis surname include Hendrik Tanis (1771-1841), a Dutch painter known for his landscapes and seascapes, and Cornelis Tanis (1836-1900), a Dutch politician who served as the mayor of Rotterdam in the late 19th century.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Tanis

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Tanis.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Tanis was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Tanis has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Tanis was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Tanis, please contact us.

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