Meaning and background
The story behind Tennessee
Tennessee is the name of a US state and a major river. The state name is generally traced to Tanasi, a historic Overhill Cherokee town, as described by the Tennessee State Museum. The meaning of the Cherokee place-name is not known with confidence; attractive translations circulating online should not be inserted as fact. The four-syllable sound is highly distinctive.
- Origin
- US state and river place-name derived from the historic Cherokee settlement known as Tanasi; original word meaning uncertain. Source
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About Tennessee
Recorded as a dog’s name
Tennessee appears in 4 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/tɛnəsi/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the third syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/tɛnəsi/ · primary stress on syllable 3T EH2 N AH0 S IY1
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.