Costa (surname)

Coat of arms of Costa family in Portugal

Costa (Italian: [ˈkɔsta], Portuguese: [ˈkɔʃtɐ, ˈkɔstɐ], Galician: [ˈkɔstɐ], Spanish: [ˈkosta], Catalan: [ˈkɔstə, ˈkɔsta]), sometimes Costas, da Costa, Da Costa, or Dalla Costa, is an Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, French, and Greek mostly toponymic surname. The surname spread throughout the world through colonization. It was also a surname chosen by former Jews due to Roman Catholic and other Christian (often forced) conversions.

In Italy, Portugal, Galicia and Catalonia it is derived from the Latin word costa, "rib", which has come to mean slope, coast (close to the sea, or coastline locations) in Romance languages. In Spain, it originates from Catalonia or Galicia, with the Spanish (Castilian) equivalent being Cuesta.[1]

Mediaeval Galician inscription in a 14th-century house, in Noia: "ESTAS CASAS MANDOU FAZER VASCO DA COSTA, ERA DE MCCCLXXVII" These houses were ordered by Vasco da Costa, era 1377 (1339 AD)
  1. ^ Coromines, Joan (2008). Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (1a. ed. en esta colección. ed.). Madrid: Gredos. p. 154. ISBN 978-84-473-5862-5.