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

Tetu, 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 Tetu surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Tetu in America

Tetu is the 84748th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Tetu surname appeared 221 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Tetu.

We can also compare 2010 data for Tetu 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 Tetu

The surname Tetu originated in France, specifically from the Normandy region, during the late medieval period around the 13th century. It is derived from the Old French word "tetu," meaning stubborn or headstrong, which itself is rooted in the Latin word "testa," meaning head or skull.

The earliest recorded instances of the Tetu surname can be traced back to various medieval records and documents from Normandy, such as the Livre Ancien, a census-like record from the 14th century. Some of the earliest known bearers of the name include Guillaume Tetu, mentioned in a charter from Rouen in 1292, and Jehan Tetu, recorded in the Taille de Normandie in 1325.

The name is also connected to several place names in Normandy, such as Tetu-Port, a small village near Dieppe, which likely took its name from an early inhabitant with the surname Tetu. The spelling variations of the name found in historical records include Testu, Testut, and Tetut, reflecting the variations in pronunciation and spelling conventions of the time.

One notable individual with the Tetu surname was Guillaume Tetu (c. 1509-1572), a French lawyer and magistrate from Normandy who served as the lieutenant-general of the bailliage of Caux. Another was Jacques Tetu (1633-1682), a French-Canadian settler and one of the earliest European inhabitants of what is now Quebec City.

In England, the name appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Testu," indicating that individuals with this surname or a similar variation had already settled in parts of England by the 11th century. One example is Radulphus Testu, listed as a landholder in Oxfordshire.

Other notable bearers of the Tetu surname throughout history include Jean-Baptiste Tetu (1765-1849), a French-Canadian politician and businessman, and Jean-Étienne Tetu (1776-1853), a French-Canadian clergyman and the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Trois-Rivières.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Tetu

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

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 Tetu 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 Tetu 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 Tetu was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

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

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