Updated June 9, 2019

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Family name origins & meanings

  • Portuguese and Spanish : possibly a nickname from cota ‘breast armor’.
  • Italian : from a short form of a personal name formed with the suffix -cotta, as for example Ciccotta, or a nickname from cotta ‘(ecclesiastical) habit’.
  • French and : from medieval Latin cotta, Old French cotte, denoting a kind of long-sleeved tunic worn both by men and women, hence possibly an occupational name for someone who made such garments or a nickname for someone who habitually wore one.
  • German : habitational name from either of two places named Cotta, near Pirna and near Dresden in Saxony.