Explore the Family Name Tanoue

The meaning of Tanoue

Japanese: written 田上, a topographic name meaning ‘above the rice paddy’; it originated in western Japan. Commonly Romanized as Tanouye in older immigrant families. Some variants interpose the actual character for the grammatical particle ‘no’: 田之上 or 田ノ上.

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

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

According to data from the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Tanoue was ranked 100,194 in popularity in the year 2000 and slipped slightly to rank 103,181 in 2010, marking a decrease of approximately 2.98%. However, the actual count of individuals with the Tanoue surname increased by about 4.19% during the same period, from 167 to 174. Despite this increase, the proportion per 100,000 people remained stable at 0.06.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#100,194	#103,181	-2.98%
Count	167	174	4.19%
Proportion per 100k	0.06	0.06	0%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Tanoue

Shifting attention to the ethnic identity associated with the Tanoue surname, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals an interesting trend. The dominant ethnicity for this surname is Asian/Pacific Islander, although its representation decreased from 86.23% in 2000 to 74.14% in 2010. This change coincides with a significant surge in the number of individuals identifying as two or more races, which spiked from 5.39% to 20.11% during the same period. Meanwhile, the percentage of White individuals bearing the Tanoue surname declined by about 33.55%, from 7.78% in 2000 to 5.17% in 2010. There were no recorded instances of Hispanic, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native individuals with the Tanoue surname in either 2000 or 2010.

	2000	2010	Change
Asian/Pacific Islander	86.23%	74.14%	-14.02%
Two or More Races	5.39%	20.11%	273.1%
White	7.78%	5.17%	-33.55%
Hispanic	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%