Explore the Family Name Cortazar

The meaning of Cortazar

Basque: Castilianized form (Cortázar) of Kortazar, a topographic name from Basque korta ‘farm, stable’ and za(h)ar ‘old’, or a habitational name from Kortazar (in Castilian: Cortázar) in Biscay, Basque Country (Spain).

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Cortazar in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census data, the surname Cortazar has seen a significant increase in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 48,293rd most popular surname, but by 2010, it had risen to the 33,499th position, marking a remarkable growth of over 30%. Similarly, the number of people with this surname also grew from 411 in 2000 to 681 in 2010, a considerable increase of over 65%. The proportion per 100,000 people also increased by 53.33% during the same period.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#48,293	#33,499	30.63%
Count	411	681	65.69%
Proportion per 100k	0.15	0.23	53.33%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Cortazar

When we examine the ethnic identity associated with the Cortazar surname based on the Decennial U.S. Census, we note some interesting trends. In 2000, the surname was predominantly associated with individuals identifying as Hispanic (78.83%), followed by those identifying as White (19.46%). By 2010, the percentage of Cortazars identifying as Hispanic had slightly increased to 79.44%, while the proportion identifying as White saw a slight decline to 18.36%. Notably, in 2010, there were also small proportions of those identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander and individuals of two or more races, both categories that were absent in the 2000 data.

	2000	2010	Change
Hispanic	78.83%	79.44%	0.77%
White	19.46%	18.36%	-5.65%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	1.17%	0%
Two or More Races	0%	0.88%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0%	0%	0%