Tennant
A surname for a tenant farmer or landholder—literally someone who holds land from another.
The #4,085 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 35,517 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Tennant comes from Middle English and Anglo-Norman tenant, meaning “one who holds” or “one who occupies land under another.” The word goes back to Old French tenant, the present participle of tenir, “to hold,” from Latin tenere, “to hold.” In surname use, it was applied to a tenant farmer or similar landholder.
History
The name is well established in Scotland and northern England, and it appears in early records there as both Tennant and Tennent. Some older writers also treated it as a nickname or even a possible place-name in certain cases, but the occupation-based explanation is the standard one. In Scottish records it could sometimes be used of a lairdly family name “of that Ilk,” showing that the word had broadened beyond its plain occupational sense.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The surname is one of several everyday-status words that became family names in English, alongside names like Farmer and Shepherd.
From the historical record
“TENISON, V. Tennison, Dennison. TENNANT 1 (A.-Fr.-Lat.) Tenant, Farmer TENNENT J [f. Fr. tenant, holding, pres. part. , of tenir, Lat. tenere, to holdj TENNER for Tanner. TENNESONl unvoiced forms of Dennison, TENNISON ; q.v. TENNEY, an unvoiced form of Denney, q.v.”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Tennant
- David Tennant (b. 1971)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.