Kortez
Masculine · “courteous”
Cortes means courteous, and the word has an unexpectedly precise history: courtesy is behavior appropriate to a court, and both words come from the same Latin root. The Spanish surname carries it, and one bearer made it internationally known for reasons that have nothing to do with courtesy. Kortez is the K respelling, peaking in 1987.
How old is the name Kortez?
Kortez first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Kortez alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 800 people named Kortez are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kortez most popular?
Kortez peaked in 1987, reaching #2942 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 3,201 places below that high. See the whole 1987 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From cohors to Kortez
The story of Kortez
Hernan Cortes led the expedition that destroyed the Aztec empire between 1519 and 1521, and his surname became one of the most widely known Spanish names in the world. The name has other bearers and other histories, and Cortez as a surname is common throughout the Spanish-speaking Americas. Its use as an American given name grew in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in African-American naming, alongside other Spanish-sounding surnames used as first names. The K spelling belongs to that period.
Meaning
courteous, well-mannered
Spanish cortes means courteous or polite, from corte, 'court', from Latin cohors, cohortis — an enclosure, and by extension a retinue and then a royal court. So courtesy is literally the manner of the court. The surname Cortes began as a nickname for someone well-mannered. The derivation is settled. The z spelling is a common Spanish surname pattern, though the standard form of this name uses an s.
How the name formed
- cohors
- corte
- cortes
- Kortez
Related forms: Cortes · Cortez
Pronouncing Kortez
kor-TEZ
Two syllables, stress at the end. Spanish Cortes puts the stress on the first syllable, KOR-tes, and uses an s. The American given name uses the end-stress and the z, which is the version everyone here says.
Nicknames for Kortez
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1978
- Most boys named
- 202036 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2942reached in 1987
- Change vs 2024
- −41.7%14 in 2025, from 24
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Kortez in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cortes in Spanish — spelling variant
- Cortez in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Kortezs among us
people named Kortez are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Kortez
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kortez
- #6143
- Kortez on the 2025 chart
- #813
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kortez went to 14 boys in 2025, but Cortez is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 115, which makes it the 813th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,330 places above the chart.
- Cortez101
- Kortez14
About 1 boy in 14,853 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Kortez itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Reginaldo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kortez's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Reginaldo climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Reginaldo's path sketches the road Kortez is walking now.
Kortez sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Kortez beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kortez in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a single positive word with a genuinely interesting history.
- The pronunciation is obvious to any English reader.
- Tez is a short, distinctive nickname.
- The historical bearer is a figure of conquest, which some families weigh.
- Cortez, Cortes and Kortez all circulate.
- Its curve is around 1985, which places a bearer's generation.
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Kortez
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kortezs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Kortez are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kortez?
- Kortez is one of 2 recorded spellings. Cortez is the more common one — 101 births in 2025 against 14 for Kortez.
- How popular is the name Kortez in 2025?
- Kortez ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kortez?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Kortez — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kortez with classmates?
- Kortez will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kortez
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kortez? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kortez and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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