The history of your name

The COTTON surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
Total Rank Frequency % Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot) 31,759 1006 0.012 118
United States (1880 census) 8,173 739 0.016 163
Change since 1880 +23586 -267 -0.004 -45
Other Countries
Australia 1,287 1276 0.008 79
United Kingdom 8,520 715 0.019 186
Top States for COTTON by Total
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Texas 3,057 930 0.015 147
California 2,284 1583 0.007 67
Florida 2,006 1126 0.013 126
Illinois 1,672 784 0.013 135
Georgia 1,541 756 0.019 188
Top States for COTTON by Frequency
State Total Rank in State Frequency % Per million people
Mississippi 985 479 0.035 346
Alabama 1,360 610 0.031 306
Louisiana 1,213 580 0.027 271
Arkansas 713 533 0.027 267
Wyoming 111 514 0.022 225

Notes

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called COTTON live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called COTTON represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called COTTON in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a COTTON by picking someone at random in Mississippi than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of COTTON

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Location or Geographical Feature

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the COTTON surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the COTTON surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of COTTON in the USA

Classification Total Percent
Mixed Race 603 1.9
White (Hispanic) 486 1.53
Native American/Alaskan 245 0.77
Asian/Pacific 92 0.29
White (Caucasian) 17,020 53.59
Black/African American 13,313 41.92

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the COTTON surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of COTTON in historical publications

This name affords several derivations. Local, Welsh, Coedton, the woody hill; Coiton, Cuiton, Cor. Br.; Cwtton, Welsh, the cottage hill. Cotden, Saxon, the cot in the valley; Cwthen, Welsh, the ancient cottage or dwelling.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.


COTTON. Cottun, a place in the department of Calvados in Normandy ; also several parishes in the counties of York, Chester, Staft'ord, &c. Both forms, viz. De Cottun, and De Cotton, are foimd in the H.R. The Eng. Gazetteer gives many places called Cotton. Lord Combermere's family trace unbrokenly to the days of King John, aud there is some evidence of then' having been seated at Cotton or Coton, CO. Salop, prior to the Conquest. COTTON. \Ir. Shirley, speaking of Cotton of Landwade, Baronet, says : "It appears doubtful whether this family wece denominated from Cotton, a manor in Cambridgeshire, or from a place of the same name in the parish of Stone, in Kent. There is another Cotton Hall, in Ixning, CO. Suftblk, which lays claim to the same distinction." Xoble and Gentle Men. B COUNTIES, Names of.'' The following additional surnames derived from counties have been met with : — Auglesea, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Northumberland.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.


Similar names to COTTON

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as COTTON.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.

Matches are generated automatically by a combination of Soundex, Metaphone and Levenshtein matching.

Potential typos for COTTON

The following words are slight variants of COTTON that are likely to be possible typos or misspellings in written material.