Given name & surname · also Old English
Cosby
“farm; settlement”
Cosby is a surname from Old English, ultimately from Old Norse.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Cosby goes back to Old Norse býr, meaning “farm; settlement.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Cosby comes from Old English, and ultimately from Old Norse.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1908. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cosby through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 235
- 212 boys · 23 girls
- Most popular year
- 1921
- 15 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 1975. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 234 as a first name in 2020; 10,111 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.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Cosby, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Wilby
“willow”
>99% boys
Rauni
“rowan”
>99% boys
Claxton
“hill, peak”
>99% boys
Caldwell
“of the cold well” · “from the cold spring”
>99% boys
Other
Other is a masculine given name from Old Norse.
>99% boys
Alver
“wholly, entirely” · “weather”
96% boys · 4% girls
Thurman
“protected by Thor”
>99% boys
Carlyle
“from the fort at Luguvalium”
82% boys · 18% girls