Tinney
Usually a local English surname, likely from a place-name or a nickname based on “tin,” with some early sources treating it as a Tin-like form.
The #8,488 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 79,492 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Tinney is not securely settled, but it is generally treated as an English surname with a local or nickname-based origin. One line of explanation connects it with place-names such as Tinn/Thin or with diminutive forms built on a short stem like Tin-. Another, more speculative, tradition links it to the word tin, as in a tin-related nickname or occupational sense, though the evidence for that is weaker.
History
19th-century surname writers noted Tinney alongside forms like Tinley, Tinsley, and Tinsman, and some tried to explain it through similarity to tin or related name-stems. The name appears in English and Irish surname lists, with historical concentration noted in Cornwall in one source. It remains a relatively uncommon surname in modern use.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One 19th-century compiler even listed Tinney among surnames that might be heard as “tin-like,” showing how often surname scholars of the period mixed place-name and sound-based explanations.
From the historical record
“Finn. FI. Tinne ; Dch. Tijn ; / Thin ; p.n. See Thin Tinney. FI. Tinne; a p.n. S I Thin Tinsley. A loc. n., Yorks”
— British Family Names: their origin and meaning (2nd ed.)