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Costa History Early Origins Spelling Variations Early Notables World Ranking

Contemporary Notables Historic Events Related Stories Citations

Costa History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
France
Italy
Portugal
Spain

The name Costa and its many variations originate in the numerous places in Portugal named da Costa or Costa having derived from the Portuguese word 'costa,' which means coast or shore. Alternatively, the name could have been derived from the Latin word "costa," meaning "rib".

Early Origins of the Costa family

The surname Costa was first found in at Quinta da Costa, in the region of Guimaraes, and dates from the reign of King Afonso Henriques in the 12th century.

Don Joao Ribeiro Gaio, Bishop of Malaca, wrote a lyric poem extolling the bravery of the Costa family. An excerpt from the work states, "With ribs he defended himself, breaking the sword of his enemy, his beloved at his side, even though she also died."

In some cases, the family was Cristãos-novos, or New Christians who converted from Judaism to Catholicism by state edict at 1497. But there are multiple cases where individuals returned to Judaism including Uriel da Costa (c. 1585-1640) the Portuguese philosopher and Catherine Rachel da Costa (1679-1756) whose family fled to London during the Spanish Inquisition.

Costa Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Da Costa, Costa, Costas, De Costa, De la Costa, Dalla Costa and many more.

Early Notables of the Costa family

Prominent members of the family include

Jorge da Costa (1406-1508), a Portuguese Cardinal, was Archbishop of Lisbon (1464-1500) and 108th Archbishop of Braga (1486-1501.)
Catherine Rachel da Costa (1679-1756), née Mendes, was an English miniaturist. She grew up in London and studied painting under Bernard Lens III. Most of her surviving portraits are of family and frie...
Francesco Costa (1672-1740) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in his Native Genoa. Joan d'Acosta ( c. 1665- c. 1740) was a Jewish jester at the court of Czar Peter the G...

Costa World Ranking

In the United States, the name Costa is the 1,076^th most popular surname with an estimated 27,357 people with that name. 1 However, in Canada, the name Costa is ranked the 963^rd most popular surname with an estimated 5,601 people with that name. 2 And in France, the name Costa is the 387^th popular surname with an estimated 10,900 people with that name. 3 South America ranks Costa as 54^th with 74 people. 4

Costa migration to the United States +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Costa Settlers in United States in the 16th Century

Pedro de Costa, went to Venezuela in 1534
Cristóbal Costa, went to Hispaniola in 1537

Costa Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Matthias De Costa, who landed in Maryland in 1666-1750 5

Costa Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Mr. Joseph Costa, French settler traveling aboard the ship "Le Beaumont" arriving in Louisiana on 19th August 1785 6
Mrs. Marguerite Costa (nee Trahan), French settler traveling aboard the ship "Le Beaumont" arriving in Louisiana on 19th August 1785 6

Costa Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Juan De Costa, who landed in America in 1812 5
Francisco Costa, who arrived in Puerto Rico in 1813 5
Ventura Costa, who landed in Puerto Rico in 1816 5
Ramon Costa, aged 53, who arrived in New Orleans, La in 1827 5
Pedro De Costa, who landed in Venezuela in 1834 5
... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Costa migration to West Indies +

The British first settled the British West Indies around 1604. They made many attempts but failed in some to establish settlements on the Islands including Saint Lucia and Grenada. By 1627 they had managed to establish settlements on St. Kitts (St. Christopher) and Barbados, but by 1641 the Spanish had moved in and destroyed some of these including those at Providence Island. The British continued to expand the settlements including setting the First Federation in the British West Indies by 1674; some of the islands include Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Belize then known as British Honduras. By the 1960's many of the islands became independent after the West Indies Federation which existed from 1958 to 1962 failed due to internal political conflicts. After this a number of Eastern Caribbean islands formed a free association. 7

Costa Settlers in West Indies in the 19th Century

Cristobal Costa, who arrived in Dominican Republic in 1837 5

Contemporary Notables of the name Costa (post 1700) +

David Joseph "Dave" Costa (1941-2013), American NFL football defensive tackle
Johnny Costa (1922-1996), American jazz pianist
Manuel José Dias Soares Costa (1933-2021), Portuguese politician who served as Minister of Agriculture from 1983 to 1984
José Carlos de Sequeira Costa (1929-2019), Portuguese pianist from Luanda, Angola
José Fonseca e Costa GCIH (1933-2015), Portuguese film director
Daniela Costa (1981-2023), Catalan actress
Mario Costa (1936-2023), Italian philosopher, known for his studies of the consequences of new technology in art and aesthetics
Augusto Ferrero Costa (1944-2023), Peruvian lawyer and politician, President of the Constitutional Court of Peru from January to September 2022
Jean-Paul Costa (1941-2023), French jurist, President of the European Court of Human Rights from 2007 to 2011
Sueli Correa Costa (1943-2023), Brazilian singer-songwriter and composer, born in Rio de Janeiro
... (Another 11 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Historic Events for the Costa family +

HMS Prince of Wales

Mr. Peter David Costa (b. 1920), Corporal, who sailed into battle on the HMS Prince of Wales (1941) and survived the sinking 8

SS Caribou

Mr. K. F. Da Costa, (K. P.), British passenger who was Royal Fleet Auxilliary officer was travelling aboard the railway ferry "SS Caribou" when it was struck by a German submarine torpedo on 14th October 1942, the most significant sinking in Canadian waters at that time, he survived the sinking

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
"Surnames Meanings, Origins & Distribution Maps - Forebears." Forebears, https://forebears.io/surnames
http://www.journaldesfemmes.com/nom-de-famille/nom/
"List of most common surnames in South America." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_common_surnames_in_South_America
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
7 Ships Acadian Expedition of 1785. Retrieved 13th October from http://www.acadian-cajun.com/7ships.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indies
HMS Prince of Wales Crew members. (Retrieved 2014, April 9) . Retrieved from http://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/biographies/listprincecrew.html