Jewish Names, Surnames Names, British Names, English Names, Finnish Names, German Names, Cowboy Names, Occupational Names

English, Finnish and German speaking countries

This surname has four separate origins. In English-speaking countries it is simply an occupational surname for a tanner (a tanner is someone who treats animal hide to make leather). In German it is either a variant of the surname Tann (meaning 'forest', and used for someone who lived in one) or Tanne (meaning 'pine', and used for someone who lived near a pine tree or in a pine forest). In Finnish it comes from the Finnish word 'tanner' ('open field'). It is also an Ashkenazic Jewish surname of uncertain origin.