Cosmos
The order of the universe, from the Greek kosmos, originally meaning order.
Name Census estimates that about 43 living Americans carry the first name Cosmos. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cosmos today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cosmos births was 1970 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cosmos. 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 Cosmos with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Cosmos. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
43
~ 1 in 7,971,031 Americans
Peak year
1970
9 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2022 SSA rank
#8,438
Tracked since 1970
Census
Cosmos in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 184 people with the first name Cosmos, which placed it at #40,443 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
#40,443
National first-name rank
People counted
184
184 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
51.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cosmos
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cosmos is Black at 51.6%. The next largest groups are White (33.2%) and Hispanic (8.7%). 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 Cosmos 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 Cosmos at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American51.6% · 95
- White33.2% · 61
- Hispanic or Latino8.7% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 8
- Two or more races2.2% · 4
Popularity
Cosmos: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cosmos from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 23 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cosmos 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 Cosmos during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cosmos
The name Cosmos has its origins in Greek, derived from the word "kosmos," which means "order," "harmony," or "the world." This name reflects the ancient Greek concept of the universe as an orderly and harmonious system.
The earliest recorded use of the name Cosmos dates back to ancient Greece, where it was used as a philosophical and cosmological term to describe the orderly and harmonious arrangement of the universe. It was also associated with the personification of the cosmos as a deity in Greek mythology.
In ancient Greek literature, the name Cosmos appears in various philosophical and scientific works, such as those written by Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers often used the term "kosmos" to refer to the ordered and harmonious structure of the universe.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Cosmos was Cosmos of Alexandria, a Byzantine mathematician and astronomer who lived in the 7th century AD. He is known for his work on the calculation of the date of Easter and for his contributions to the development of trigonometry.
Another notable figure with the name Cosmos was Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek merchant and explorer who lived in the 6th century AD. He is best known for his work "Christian Topography," which described his travels and presented a Christian interpretation of the world based on the Bible.
In the 15th century, Cosmas Hierosolomites, a Greek Orthodox monk and scholar, was known for his translations of ancient Greek texts and his work on the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
During the Renaissance period, Cosmos was used as a name by several Italian humanists and scholars, reflecting the renewed interest in classical Greek culture and philosophy. One example is Cosimo de' Medici (1389-1464), a prominent figure in the Medici family and a patron of the arts and sciences in Florence.
In more recent history, Cosmos Indicopleustes (1770-1857) was a Greek scholar and theologian who played a significant role in the Greek Enlightenment movement and the promotion of education in Greece.
Throughout its history, the name Cosmos has been associated with philosophical and scientific ideas, reflecting the ancient Greek concept of the orderly and harmonious nature of the universe. While its use has been relatively rare, it has been borne by notable individuals in various fields, including mathematics, astronomy, exploration, and scholarship.
People
Cosmos + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cosmos 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
Cosmos: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cosmos?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 43 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cosmos 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 7,971,031 US residents.
Is Cosmos a common name?
We classify Cosmos as "Very Rare". It ranks above 52.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 44 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cosmos most popular?
The single biggest year for Cosmos was 1970, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cosmos is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cosmos in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 184 people with the name Cosmos, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,443 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 Cosmos 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 Cosmos?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cosmos leans strongly male. 174 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 12 female bearers (6.5%). 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 Cosmos?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cosmos is Black at 51.6%. The next largest groups are White (33.2%) and Hispanic (8.7%). 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 Cosmos most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cosmos in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.6% (95 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 Cosmos in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cosmos a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cosmos 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 Cosmos still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cosmos 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 Cosmos 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 Cosmos?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.