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

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'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.