Coto
surname · Latin script
Meaning, in Spanish: preserve, wildlife preserve, land preserve
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 15 countries · latest register: Census Bureau, 2020
/ˈko.t̪o/(recorded in a dictionary) Spanish · from Wiktionary
Coto is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Costa Rica than in any other country, where it is the 98th most common surname.
- CRCosta Rica1 in 388(measured from records)
- SVEl Salvador≈1 in 1.8K
- HNHonduras≈1 in 2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Costa Rica (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 228 (measured from records)
- 1 in 388 (inferred from the name graph)
13,133 people
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Costa Rica
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 10.4 cm.
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
How Coto is read
(measured from records)Coto is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- Spanish79%
preserve, wildlife preserve, land preserve
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- English14%
A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 10.4 cm.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Coto counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CR Costa Rica | #98 | 13,133 | 1 in 388 | 13K | Coto | 101 |
| HN Honduras | #191 | ≈4,500 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Coto | 33 |
| SV El Salvador | #248 | ≈3,700 est. | ≈1 in 1.8K | — | Coto | 51 |
| ES Spain | — | 3,458 | 1 in 14K | 3.5K | Coto | 114 |
| US United States | — | 2,814 | 1 in 118K | 2.9K | Coto | 228 |
| UY Uruguay | — | 407 | 1 in 8.3K | 407 | Coto | 21 |
13,133 people counted by TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Coto is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Galician, peak (the top, or one of the tops, of a hill, mountain, or range)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Portuguese, stump (remaining part of an amputated limb or organ)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In nhx, having a cleft lip
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Italian, thought, opinion
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Fernando Coto Albánb. 1919CRjurist
- Joe Cotob. 1939USAmerican politician
- Manny Cotob. 1961USAmerican director, producer and writer (1961–2023)
- Sergio Gutierrez Cotob. 1968MXMexican actor and voice actor
- Alberto Coto Garcíab. 1970ESSpanish mental calculator
- Cristina Cotob. 1970ESSpanish politician
- José Antonio Coto Roquetb. 1986ESSpanish politician
- Carles Cotob. 1988ESSpanish footballer
- Ana Cotob. 1990USAmerican actress
- Víctor Menab. 1995ESnot in their usual nameassociation football player (born 1995)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)24 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 15 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names | — | 13K | #140 |
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 3.5K | #1,485 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 3.5K | #1,485 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.9K | #10,505 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 2.8K | #11,229 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2K | #13,885 |
| UY Uruguay | INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public) | — | 407 | — |
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — Consulta de nombres (Padrón Nacional Electoral name enumeration) | — | — | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Coto come from?
- A traditional Spanish unit of length, equivalent to about 10.4 cm. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Coto?
- In the etymology graph, Couto is a form of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Coto?
- In Spanish /ˈko.t̪o/ (Wiktionary).
- What does the name Coto mean?
- In Spanish, preserve, wildlife preserve, land preserve
- In which country does Coto have the most bearers?
- In Costa Rica, the national register counted about 13 thousand people named Coto, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled coto.
- Where is Coto most common?
- Coto is densest in Costa Rica, where the national register counts about 1 in 388 people carrying it.
- How common is the name Coto?
- In Costa Rica, the national register counted 13,133 people named Coto, about 1 in 388 residents.
- How common is Coto compared with other names?
- In Costa Rica, Coto is the 98th most common surname of 8,899 surnames recorded there.
What do you want to know about Coto?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/cotoThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Coto” — the 98th most common surname in Costa Rica. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.