Where the Costa surname comes from
Costa is a place surname. It comes from the Latin costa, “side, rib.” Over time the word also came to mean the side of a mountain and the shore of the sea or a river. The first Costa lived on a slope, on the shore of a lake or along the sea.
In many families the surname comes from a village or a place called Costa. Scholars also mention another possible path, which holds only for some families. Which one it is, the PDF tells you.
From olive oil to ships
In Genoa, in the 1800s, a Costa family traded olive oil and fabrics. In the 1900s that trade gave rise to a company now known all over the world. The PDF tells how they got there, and who the painter Costa was who worked at the Gonzaga court.
Where the Costas live today
Costa is a surname of all of Italy, with a rare balance between North and South. There are about 22,600 families, mostly in Sicily, Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont. Relative to population, though, the region most tied to the surname is Liguria. The town where it ranks number one is Santa Margherita Ligure, on the Riviera di Levante. Around the world there are a great many Costas, but most of them are of Portuguese origin. The region-by-region map and the countries where Italian emigrants arrived are in the PDF.
Variants
Alongside Costa there are the forms with a preposition, those ending in -i and the compound surnames born from one particular slope. The PDF explains where each one comes from.
| Surname | Where it is concentrated |
|---|---|
| Costa | Sicily, Veneto, Lombardy |
| Costi | Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Tuscany |
| Dalla Costa | Veneto, Lombardy |
| Costella | Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli |
FAQ
What does the surname Costa mean?
“The one who lives on the costa”: it comes from the Latin costa, “side.” It marked those who lived on a slope, on a shore or along the sea, or those who came from a place called Costa.
Is Costa a Ligurian or a Sicilian surname?
Both, and more. The largest number of families is in Sicily, Veneto and Lombardy. Relative to population, the region where it is strongest is Liguria, where it’s the fourth most common surname.
Are Costa and Dalla Costa the same surname?
They share the same origin. Dalla Costa is the Venetian form with the preposition, “those who come from the costa.” In old registers the same family can appear with or without the preposition.
Are all Costas related?
No. In a great many villages there was someone who lived “on the costa,” and two Costa families almost never have any connection. To trace your own story you need birth records and parish registers.
Is the Costa surname noble?
The surname itself doesn’t indicate nobility: it comes from a word for the landscape. Some Costa families were noble, for example in Rome and in Piedmont, but they were specific branches.
Is there a Costa family coat of arms?
The archives record coats of arms of individual Costa families, very different from one another. No single coat of arms belongs to every Costa, and most families never had one.
Are the Costas of Brazil and Portugal of Italian origin?
Almost never. The same Latin word also gave the surname in Portugal, Spain and France. In Brazil there are about a million and a half Costas, almost all of Portuguese origin.
