Kota
A masculine Japanese name meaning "hilly countryside" or "hillock".
Name Census estimates that about 1,088 living Americans carry the first name Kota. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.4% of registrations being male. The average person named Kota today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kota births was 2023 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kota. 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 Kota with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kota is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 315,032 Americans
Peak year
2023
100 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,045
Tracked since 1985
Census
Kota in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 890 people with the first name Kota, which placed it at #13,530 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
#13,530
National first-name rank
People counted
890
890 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
36.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kota
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kota is Asian/Pacific Islander at 36.3%. The next largest groups are White (31.5%) and Two or More Races (14.8%). 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 Kota 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 Kota at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander36.3% · 323
- White31.5% · 280
- Two or more races14.8% · 132
- Hispanic or Latino7.5% · 67
- Black or African American6.1% · 54
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.8% · 34
Gender
Gender distribution for Kota
Kota leans heavily male at 87.4% of total registrations, but 138 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kota as a male name
- Ranked #2,045 in 2024
- 74 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (88 births)
Kota as a female name
- Ranked #6,506 in 2024
- 18 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kota leans strongly male. 748 people counted with this name were male (84.1%), compared with 141 female bearers (15.9%).
Popularity
Kota: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kota from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 428 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
Kota 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 Kota during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kotas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Kota, while Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kota
The name Kota has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language that emerged in the second millennium BCE in the Indian subcontinent. It is derived from the Sanskrit word 'koṭī,' which means 'a fort' or 'a stronghold.' The name likely originated as a reference to a person who lived in or near a fortified settlement or was associated with a fortress or a fortified place.
In Hindu mythology, Kota appears as the name of a sage mentioned in the Mahabharata, one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India. The Mahabharata is an important source of Hindu religious and moral teachings and is believed to have been composed between the 8th and 4th centuries BCE.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kota can be found in the writings of Kalidasa, a renowned classical Sanskrit poet and playwright who lived in the 4th-5th century CE. Kalidasa's works, such as the play Abhijnanashakuntalam and the epic poem Raghuvamsha, are considered literary masterpieces in Sanskrit literature.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kota. One of the most famous was Kota Venkata Krishnaiah (1881-1970), an Indian freedom fighter, social reformer, and politician who played a significant role in the Indian independence movement against British rule.
Another prominent figure with the name Kota was Kota Shivaram Karanth (1902-1997), a renowned Kannada writer, playwright, and social reformer from the Indian state of Karnataka. He is widely regarded as one of the founding figures of modern Kannada literature and was a recipient of the Jnanpith Award, one of India's highest literary honors.
In the field of music, Kota Kodalu Sreeramulu (1920-2004) was a notable Indian classical musician and composer from Andhra Pradesh. He was a skilled performer of the veena, a plucked string instrument, and contributed significantly to the development of Carnatic music, the classical music tradition of South India.
Kota Bharu, the capital city of the Malaysian state of Kelantan, also bears a name derived from the same Sanskrit root. The name is believed to have been given to the city due to its historical significance as a fortified settlement and a center of trade and commerce.
While the name Kota has its roots in ancient Sanskrit, it has transcended cultural boundaries and has been adopted and used across various regions and communities, reflecting the rich diversity and shared cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.
People
Kota + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kota as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kota: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kota?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,088 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kota 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 315,032 US residents.
Is Kota a common name?
We classify Kota as "Rare". It ranks above 90.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,098 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kota most popular?
The single biggest year for Kota was 2023, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kota is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kota in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 890 people with the name Kota, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,530 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 Kota 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 Kota?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kota leans strongly male. 748 people counted with this name were male (84.1%), compared with 141 female bearers (15.9%). 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 Kota?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kota is Asian/Pacific Islander at 36.3%. The next largest groups are White (31.5%) and Two or More Races (14.8%). 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 Kota most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Kota in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.3% (323 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 Kota in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kota a male name?
Yes, 87.4% of people registered as Kota 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 Kota still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kota 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 Kota 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 have Kota as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Kota on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.