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    The surname Cosby

    An English place surname, carried by 10,300 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex C210

    Cosby: #3,471 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Cosby #3,471, 10,300 people Cosby: #3,471 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Cosby #3,471, 10,300 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Cosby is more common than 97.9% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

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

    Cosby is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

    One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 10,300 people named Cosby in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 29,975 Americans. That is up 1.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 10,121.

    #3,471
    rank among US surnames
    10,300
    people in 2010
    3.5
    per 100,000 Americans
    +1.8%
    change since 2000 (was #3,242)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #3,462Wicker10,32129,914
    #3,463Liles10,31729,926
    #3,464Fang10,31629,929
    #3,466Maya10,31329,938
    #3,467Ferry10,31229,940
    #3,468Marvin10,31029,946
    #3,469Quinlan10,30229,969

    Who is named Cosby

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    50% of people named Cosby identified as white (not Hispanic), 44% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.7% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 50%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 44%
    • Two or more races 2.7%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.7%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.4%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.3%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Cosbys

    3 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Bill Cosby
      American actor and comedian (born 1937)
    • S. A. Cosby
      American author, born 1970
    • Jessica Cosby
      American hammer thrower, born 1982

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Cosby

    Cosby has the Soundex code C210, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C210.

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Cosby come from?
    From the Old English personal name *Cossa + Old Norse býr (“farm; settlement”).
    How common is the surname Cosby?
    10,300 people in the United States had the surname Cosby in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 29,975 Americans. It ranked 3,471st of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Cosby?
    In the 2010 Census, 50% of people named Cosby identified as white (not Hispanic), and 44% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Cosby?
    Bill Cosby, American actor and comedian (born 1937), followed by S. A. Cosby.
    Where is the surname Cosby most common?
    Wikidata records people named Cosby in the United States.
    What type of surname is Cosby?
    Cosby is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Cosby getting more or less common?
    More common. 10,121 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 10,300 in 2010, up 1.8%.