Find out how popular the last name Cotterell is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Cotterell.

Cotterell, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Cotterell surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Cotterell in America

Cotterell is the 33316th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Cotterell surname appeared 686 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Cotterell.

We can also compare 2010 data for Cotterell to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Cotterell

The surname Cotterell is of English origin, deriving from the Old English words 'cotrerl' and 'cotrel', meaning a cottager. It first emerged in the counties of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in the 13th century.

In medieval times, the Cotterell name was associated with smallholders, peasants or labourers who lived in modest cottages or huts. The earliest recorded spelling was Coterelle in the Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire in 1273.

The name Cotterell appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Coterel, referring to a landowner in Somerset. In the Testa de Nevill, an ancient collection of feudal tenures in England, a John Coterel was listed as a landowner in Buckinghamshire in 1212.

One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Geoffrey Cotterell, a merchant from Bristol, who was mentioned in the city's records in 1314. The variant spelling Coterell was used in the Kent Feet of Fines in 1301, which listed a John Coterell as a landowner in Headcorn.

Sir John Cotterell (1614-1672) was a notable English politician and courtier who served as the Secretary to the Council of State during the English Civil War. He was also a Member of Parliament for Westbury in Wiltshire.

Another person of note was John Cottrell (1614-1701), an English philosopher and theologian who wrote several works on metaphysics and theology. He was a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

The Cotterell family was also prominent in Staffordshire, where they held estates and manors. One notable member was Sir Clement Cotterell (1585-1631), a lawyer and Member of Parliament for Staffordshire.

In Ireland, the name was sometimes anglicized as Cotterill or Cottrill. A notable bearer was Sir John Cotterill (1759-1847), an Irish judge and politician who served as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland from 1838 to 1846.

The Cotterell name has also been associated with several places in England, such as Cotterells in Devon, derived from the personal name, and Cotterell Farm in Somerset, which may have been owned by a family with this surname.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Cotterell

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Cotterell.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Cotterell was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Cotterell has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Cotterell was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Cotterell, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!