Given name & surname
Cortes
“a courteous man”
Cortes is a variant of Cortez. One Spanish interpretation is “a courteous man.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
Cortes is a variant of Cortez. One Spanish interpretation is “a courteous man.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Cortes is a variant of Cortez. An origin associated with Cortez is Spanish.
Explained through its name family
How it developed
In Cebuano usage, Cortes as a surname developed from Cortés.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1983. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cortes through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 27
- 27 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1989
- 6 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 6 in 2019. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 159 as a first name in 2020; 49,681 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cortes’s family of names
In Cebuano usage, Cortes as a surname developed from the Spanish form Cortés. Cortes has a related form in Cortez. In English usage, Cortes as a surname was borrowed from the Spanish form Cortés.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
Similar names
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