Explore the Family Name Kotowski

The meaning of Kotowski

Polish and Jewish (Ashkenazic): habitational name for someone from any of the places called Kotów, Kotowy, or Kotowice, named with kot ‘cat’. Some characteristic forenames: Polish Tadeusz, Casimir, Jacek, Wieslaw, Alicja, Andrzej, Boguslaw, Henryk, Jadwiga, Janusz, Jaroslaw, Lech.

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

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

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the surname Kotowski saw a slight decrease in popularity between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, it was ranked as the 18,892nd most popular surname, but by 2010 slipped to 20,183rd. Despite this drop in rank, the count of individuals with this last name remained relatively stable, decreasing only slightly from 1,337 to 1,321 during the same period. Consequently, the proportion of people named Kotowski per 100,000 population also dropped by 10 percent.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#18,892	#20,183	-6.83%
Count	1,337	1,321	-1.2%
Proportion per 100k	0.5	0.45	-10%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Kotowski

The ethnicity distribution for the surname Kotowski, according to the Decennial U.S. Census data, has seen minor changes between 2000 and 2010. The majority of individuals with this surname identify as White, comprising 95.66% of Kotowskis in 2000, and slightly less – 95.08% – in 2010. There's been an increase in those identifying as Hispanic, rising from 2.24% in 2000 to 2.95% in 2010, marking a significant 31.70% change. The percentage of people identifying as two or more races remained almost constant at about 1.35%. There were no recorded individuals with the surname Kotowski identifying as Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, or American Indian and Alaskan Native in either year.

	2000	2010	Change
White	95.66%	95.08%	-0.61%
Hispanic	2.24%	2.95%	31.7%
Two or More Races	1.35%	1.36%	0.74%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Black	0%	0%	0%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	0.37%	0%	0%