How Many People Are Named Cotton?
An estimated 485 people in the United States have the first name Cotton. It is almost exclusively a male name. The average bearer is 18 years old, and Cotton peaked in popularity in 2015 with 31 births that year.
Below you will find a full statistical profile of Cotton as a first name in the United States, including gender data, a year-by-year popularity timeline going back to 1880, a decade breakdown, and state-by-state birth registrations. You can also check how many people share the full name Cotton paired with any surname.
Estimated Living Americans
485
About 1 in 706,710 people in the U.S.
Rarity
Very Rare
Predicted Gender
Male
100.0% confidence
Average Age
18
years old
Peak Year
2015
31 births
Total Registered
497
since 1880
Gender Distribution for Cotton
Cotton is almost exclusively a male name. Out of 497 total births registered, 100.0% were male.
Cotton as a male name
Ranked #8,427 in 2024
9 male births in 2024
Peak: 2015 (31 births)
Cotton: Popularity Over Time
SSA records for Cotton span from the 1910s to the 2020s, covering 7 decades of naming data. The most popular decade for this name was the 2010s, when 210 babies were registered. Cotton has declined significantly from its peak in the 2010s. Recent registrations are a fraction of what they were at the name's height.
Cotton by Decade
How has Cotton tracked across different eras? The table below groups all SSA birth registrations into 10-year periods, with separate male and female counts. The colored bar shows each decade's share relative to the peak.
Cotton by State
Cotton + Last Name Combinations
How many people share a full name with Cotton as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Names Similar to Cotton
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
Cotton: Questions and Answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cotton?
We estimate approximately 485 people named Cotton are alive in the United States today. This is based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables. About 1 in 706,710 Americans share this first name.
Is Cotton a common name?
Cotton is classified as "Very Rare" and is more popular than 84.3% of all first names in the SSA database. A total of 497 births have been registered with this name since 1880.
When was Cotton most popular?
Cotton reached peak popularity in 2015, when 31 babies were given this name. The average age of a living person named Cotton is approximately 18 years old, reflecting when the name was most commonly given.
Is Cotton a male name?
Cotton is predominantly male. 100.0% of people with this name are male. See the gender breakdown above for full details.
How many Cotton Smiths are there?
To find how many people share a specific full name, we combine first name and surname frequencies. Try: Cotton Smith, Cotton Johnson, Cotton Williams. You can also search any combination on our homepage.
Where does this data come from?
Our estimates use Social Security Administration birth records (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables broken down by sex. The U.S. population figure (342,754,338) is from the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate. Full methodology.
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