Potapov (masculine, Russian: Потапов) or Potapova (feminine, Russian: Потапова) is a Russian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
- Aleksandr Potapov (1818–1886), Russian statesman
- Anastasia Potapova, (born 2001), Russian tennis player
- Leonid Potapov (1935-2020), Russian politician
- Leonid P. Potapov (1905–2000), Russian ethnographer
- Maksim Potapov (born 1980), Russian ice hockey player
- Mikhail Feofanovich Potapov (1921–1943), Soviet military officer
- Viktor Potapov (1947–2017), Russian sailor
- Viktor Pavlovich Potapov (1934–2021), Soviet and Russian naval aviator
- Vladimir Potapov (1914–1980), Ukrainian mathematician