Family name origins & meanings
- French (Breton) and English (of Norman origin) : from a personal name, a contraction of Tanneguy, from Breton tan ‘fire’, and ki, ‘dog’, which was borne by a 6th-century Christian saint associated with Paul Aurelian. The name was introduced to England at the time of the Norman Conquest.
- A bearer of the name from Brittany in France is documented in Saint-Jean, Island of Orleans, Quebec province, in 1692, with the secondary surname LaNavette.