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

Tullis, 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 Tullis surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Tullis in America

Tullis is the 7714th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Tullis surname appeared 4,304 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 Tullis.

We can also compare 2010 data for Tullis 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 Tullis

The surname Tullis originated from the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It is derived from the Old English word "toll", which referred to a tax or toll collector. The earliest known bearers of this surname were individuals who worked as tax collectors or operated toll booths on roads and bridges.

The name Tullis can be traced back to the 11th century and is found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a record of landholders and properties in England compiled by order of William the Conqueror. This suggests that the name was well-established by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.

In the 13th century, there are records of a Walter Tollis in the Curia Regis Rolls of Hertfordshire in 1221. The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 also mention a John Tollis in Oxfordshire. These early records indicate the various spellings and variations of the name that existed in different regions.

One of the earliest known bearers of the surname Tullis was Sir John Tullis (c. 1300-1370), a prominent landowner and knight from Lincolnshire, England. He served as a member of Parliament and was involved in military campaigns during the Hundred Years' War.

In the 16th century, there was a notable Tullis family in Scotland. Robert Tullis (c. 1530-1593) was a merchant and burgess of Edinburgh, and his descendants played influential roles in Scottish trade and politics.

Another famous bearer of the surname was Samuel Tullis (1680-1753), an English clockmaker and inventor from Taunton, Somerset. He is credited with developing the first successful longcase clock with a dead-beat escapement, which significantly improved timekeeping accuracy.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Tullis name was also found in various parts of England, including Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Staffordshire. Some notable individuals from this period include William Tullis (1670-1735), a landowner and justice of the peace in Yorkshire, and John Tullis (1723-1789), a renowned mathematician and astronomer from Nottinghamshire.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Tullis

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

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

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

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