# Cortez (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/cortez/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Spanish.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Spanish |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 101,694 |
| US rank (2010) | 310 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 3,036 people |
| Change since 2000 | +31% (77,492 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Spanish Cortez, variant of Cortés.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cortez in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 6.0% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 90% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.3% |
| Two or more races | 0.4% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cortez in the United States, Brazil, Spain and Ecuador.

## People named Cortez

- Bruno Cortez, Brazilian association football player
- Catherine Cortez Masto, American lawyer and politician (born 1964)
- Ricardo Cortez, American actor (1900-1977)
- Alberto Cortez, Argentine singer (1940-2019)
- Gabriel Cortez, association football player
- Stanley Cortez, American cinematographer (1908–1997)
- Freddie Gorman, American recording artist, songwriter and record producer

## Similar surnames

Cortes, Cordes, Cortese, Courts, Curtis, Cardoza, Cardoso, Crutchfield, Craddock, Cartagena, Crites, Crutcher.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.