Where Does the Cotten Surname Come From?

Seen on a birth certificate or a ship's manifest, Cotten is usually a form of Cotton. At root, the name means “At the cottages”.

Heraldry and the Cotten name

A coat of arms belongs to a particular family line rather than to everyone named Cotten, so the heraldry linked to Cotton is a starting point, not an automatic right.

Spelling and variants

Before spelling was fixed, Cotton was also written Cotten. Other spellings include Coton.

Cotten ranked 6,015 in the 2010 US Census, with 5,719 people answering to the name. French birth records list 1,233 children named Cotten between 1891 and 2000. Get the complete Cotten report, with a museum-style coat of arms.