Cortez
A masculine Spanish given name meaning "courteous" or "polite".
Name Census estimates that about 10,094 living Americans carry the first name Cortez. It is a predominantly male name (99.2% of registrations). The average person named Cortez today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cortez births was 1990 (351 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cortez. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cortez with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cortez is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 89 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
10K
~ 1 in 33,956 Americans
Peak year
1990
351 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,993
Tracked since 1882
Census
Cortez in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,240 people with the first name Cortez, which placed it at #3,058 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,058
National first-name rank
People counted
7.2K
7,240 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cortez
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cortez is Black at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cortez described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cortez at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American82.1% · 5,946
- Hispanic or Latino10.3% · 747
- Two or more races4.2% · 306
- White2.6% · 190
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.1% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Cortez
Out of the 10,886 babies given the name Cortez since 1880, 99.2% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Cortez as a male name
- Ranked #1,993 in 2024
- 77 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1990 (346 births)
Cortez as a female name
- Ranked #13,427 in 1990
- 5 female births in 1990
- Peak: 1912 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cortez leans strongly male. 7,124 people counted with this name were male (98.4%), compared with 113 female bearers (1.6%).
Popularity
Cortez: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cortez from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 2,674 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cortez by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cortez during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cortez' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. Illinois, Michigan, Missouri recorded the most babies named Cortez, while Nebraska, Iowa, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 263 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cortez
The given name Cortez is a Spanish name that originated in the 15th century during the Age of Exploration and the Spanish conquest of the Americas. It is derived from the Spanish word "cortés," which means courteous or polite.
The name Cortez is closely associated with Hernán Cortés, the famous Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire in present-day Mexico. Hernán Cortés was born in 1485 in Medellín, Spain, and he arrived in Mexico in 1519, where he eventually conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán in 1521.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Cortez can be found in the chronicles of the Spanish conquest of Mexico, which were written by various Spanish conquistadors and historians during the 16th century. These chronicles documented the exploits of Hernán Cortés and his men, and the name Cortez became synonymous with the Spanish conquest of the Americas.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who have borne the name Cortez. Here are five examples:
1. Hernán Cortés (1485-1547), the Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztec Empire.
2. Juan Cortés (c. 1451-1527), a Spanish navigator and explorer who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas.
3. Martín Cortés (1532-1589), the son of Hernán Cortés and his interpreter and mistress, Doña Marina.
4. José Cortés Arredondo (1825-1892), a Mexican general and politician who served as the Governor of Veracruz in the 1860s.
5. Pablo Cortés (1892-1980), a Chilean poet and diplomat who served as the Chilean ambassador to several countries.
While the name Cortez has its origins in Spain and the Spanish conquest of the Americas, it has since spread to other parts of the world and has been adopted by individuals from various cultural backgrounds.
People
Cortez + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cortez as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cortez: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cortez?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,094 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cortez going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 33,956 US residents.
Is Cortez a common name?
We classify Cortez as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,886 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cortez most popular?
The single biggest year for Cortez was 1990, when 351 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cortez is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cortez in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,240 people with the name Cortez, or 2.40 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,058 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cortez in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cortez?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cortez leans strongly male. 7,124 people counted with this name were male (98.4%), compared with 113 female bearers (1.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cortez?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cortez is Black at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (10.3%) and Two or More Races (4.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cortez most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cortez in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (5,946 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cortez in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cortez a male name?
Yes, 99.2% of people registered as Cortez in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cortez still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cortez in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cortez can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Cortez?
Want to know how many Americans are named Cortez? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.