Kosta

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●(measured from records)

Attested across 13 languages in the etymology graph.

How Kosta is read●(measured from records)

Kosta is one spelling over 6 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 3 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.

• English35%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Kosta in English.

• Albanian14%

  definite nominative of Kostë

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Bulgarian14%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Kosta in Bulgarian.

• Greek11%

  nickname for a bony person, from kost ‘bone’ (see Kost 2).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• German8.6%

  männl. Vom., russische, serbische, kroatische Koseform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Croatian7.0%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Kosta in Croatian.

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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Kosta is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Portuguese surname101 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, Argentina, Portugal

  Languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi

  Also written Costa, Koshta, Коста, Košta, Кошта

• Albanian given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Albania, United States, Italy, United Kingdom

  Also written Kőštâ, Kõstä

• Greek given name12 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Greece, Canada, United Kingdom

  Also written Costa, Κωστα, Κώστα, Κοστα, Κόστα

• French given name11 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, United States, Canada

  Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Košta, Köstä, Kostá, Kostà, Köstà

• Hindi given name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, United Kingdom, Serbia, United States

  Languages: Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Košta, Kośṭā

• a separate name7 spellings in the group

  Also written Kôśta, Kostā, Košta, Kōsta, Kösta

• Slovak given name6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Slovakia, Czechia

  Languages: Slovak, Czech

  Also written Košta, Košťa, Kosťa, Kos̆ta

• Polish given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Serbia

  Also written Kösta, Košta

38 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Kosta is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Russian, dim of Konstiantin. Kostadin (m) --

  as a word·A Dictionary of Period Russian Names (Wickenden / Goldschmidt 1996)

• In Norwegian Nynorsk, to cost (require payment of a price, cause something to be lost)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In pov, back (the backside of the body)

  as a word·kaikki.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)

• Kosta Protićb. 1831RSSerbian general (1831–1892)
• Kosta Khetagurovb. 1859RUOssetian poet (1859-1906)
• Kosta Pećanacb. 1879XKSerbian Chetnik commander (1879–1944)
• Kosta Mušickib. 1897HRSerbian general (1897-1946)
• Kosta Tomaševićb. 1923RSSerbian footballer (1923-1976)
• Kosta Runjaicb. 1971DEGerman association football player and manager
• Kosta Perovićb. 1985RSSerbian basketball player (born 1985)
• Kosta Barbarousesb. 1990NZNew Zealand footballer
• Kosta Aleksićb. 1998RSSerbian footballer
• Kosta Nedeljkovićb. 2005RSSerbian association football player (2005-)

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)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Kosta mean, and where does it come from?

definite nominative of Kostë Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).

How do you pronounce Kosta?

A machine transcription gives /ˈkoʊstə/ (IPA) for English.

What are other forms of the name Kosta?

In the etymology graph, Stan, Constantin and Dinu are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Konstantin and Kostadin.

In which country does Kosta have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 2.3 thousand people named Kosta in Serbia, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kosta.

Is Kosta a male or female name?

Kosta is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

How common is the name Kosta?

In the United States, the national register counted 842 people named Kosta in 2020, about 1 in 395 thousand residents.