Explore the Family Name Tapley

The meaning of Tapley

English (Devon, Cheshire and Kent): 1. habitational name from Tapeley in Devon. The placename derives from an Old English personal name Tæppa + Old English lēah ‘wood, woodland clearing’. 2. variant of Tabley, a habitational name from Over and Nether Tabley in Cheshire. The placename derives from the Old English personal name Tæbba + Old English lēah ‘wood, woodland clearing’.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Tapley has slightly declined over a decade. In 2000, Tapley ranked 9,317 in popularity and by 2010, it had dropped to 9,902, indicating a decrease of 6.28%. However, the actual count of people with the Tapley surname modestly increased from 3,212 to 3,264, a growth of 1.62%. The proportion per 100,000 people also decreased by 6.72% over the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#9,317	#9,902	-6.28%
Count	3,212	3,264	1.62%
Proportion per 100k	1.19	1.11	-6.72%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Tapley

Turning to ethnic identity, the data from the Decennial U.S. Census shows some shifts among those with the Tapley surname between 2000 and 2010. The proportion identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander decreased by 26%. However, those identifying as having two or more races significantly increased by 101.08%, while individuals identifying as Hispanic also saw a substantial rise of 102%. White representation decreased slightly by 2.10%, and there was a negligible increase in Black representation at 0.39%. Lastly, the percentage of American Indian and Alaskan Native representation showed a small increase of 4.26%.

	2000	2010	Change
White	89.38%	87.5%	-2.1%
Black	7.72%	7.75%	0.39%
Hispanic	1%	2.02%	102%
Two or More Races	0.93%	1.87%	101.08%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.47%	0.49%	4.26%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0.5%	0.37%	-26%