Cortez
#1,655 in 2025Boys' nameMeaning not yet documented
Cortez has been given to 10,988 babies in the U.S. since 1882. In 2025 it ranked #1,655 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 1990, with 346 recorded.
Babies named Cortez, 2025
1 in 32,800
Cortez over time, 1880–2025
Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Cortez?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 32,800
- 101 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 16,900
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #1,655
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 22,753 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Cortez sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 22,753 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cortez. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Cortezs were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Cortez was born before 1995 — so the typical Cortez is around 30 today.
- Biggest decade
- 1990s
- 24.5% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 39.4%
- Spread across generations
- Recorded since 1950
- 10,425
- People you could plausibly meet
1990s — 24.5% of all recorded uses (2,669).
Is Cortez rising or falling?
Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.
- Rank vs 1 year ago
- +343
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −255
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −613
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.53×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 29.2%
- Peak was 1990 (346)
- Years since peak
- 35
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Steady
- 11.9% average annual change
Spellings of Cortez
Cortez is not the most common spelling — Carter is, with 43.9% against Cortez's 2.3%.
Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.
Where Cortez is used
Across 2016–2025, Cortez was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 4,348 boys, against 1 in 13,396 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in 100,000).
Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.
Cortez around the world
Where Cortez ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.
- England & Wales2005–2023#4,108in 2023
- Canada2004–2016#2,748in 2016
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Cortez by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Cortez
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Names with a curve like Cortez
Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Cortez, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.
Sibling names for Cortez
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.