# Cosby (surname)

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

A habitational surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 10,300 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,471 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 29,975 people |
| Change since 2000 | +1.8% (10,121 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From the Old English personal name *Cossa + Old Norse býr (“farm; settlement”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cosby 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) | 50% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 44% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.7% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 2.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cosby in the United States.

## People named Cosby

- Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian (born 1937)
- S. A. Cosby, American author
- Jessica Cosby, American hammer thrower

## Similar surnames

Causby, Cacioppo.

## 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.