Explore the Family Name Tangen

The meaning of Tangen

Norwegian: habitational name from any of numerous farmsteads, named with the definite singular form of tange, from Old Norse tangi ‘tongue (of land)’. Some characteristic forenames: Scandinavian Erik, Audun, Erland, Iver, Kristoffer, Nels, Selmer, Svein.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Tangen in the United States?

The surname Tangen ranked 19,537 in popularity in 2000 and slightly dropped to 19,933 in 2010 based on data from the Decennial U.S. Census. Although its ranking dipped by 2.03%, the count of individuals with this surname rose from 1,278 in 2000 to 1,346 in 2010, a growth of 5.32%. This increase didn't significantly affect the proportion per 100,000 people, which only fell marginally from 0.47 to 0.46 during the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#19,537	#19,933	-2.03%
Count	1,278	1,346	5.32%
Proportion per 100k	0.47	0.46	-2.13%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Tangen

Turning to the ethnicity data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the majority of individuals with the Tangen surname identified as White, accounting for 96.95% in 2000 and just slightly less at 96.29% in 2010. People identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander made up around 1% of the Tangen population in both years, though there was a small decline of 12.75% over the decade. The percentage identifying with two or more races increased slightly from 1.02% to 1.19%. Interestingly, those identifying as Hispanic saw a substantial increase from 0.55% to 1.19%. There were no recorded instances of the surname among those identifying as Black or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	96.95%	96.29%	-0.68%
Two or More Races	1.02%	1.19%	16.67%
Hispanic	0.55%	1.19%	116.36%
Asian/Pacific Islander	1.02%	0.89%	-12.75%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%