Cone
An English and Irish surname with several possible roots, including a French place-name and an Irish branch of MacCone.
The #3,583 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 31,077 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname has more than one possible origin. In English records it may be locational, from a place-name such as Cosne in France or from a Norman-associated form that was shortened to Cone; some 19th-century writers also linked it to Cornwall. In Irish contexts, Cone can be a reduced form related to MacCone or the older Gaelic personal-name element con, meaning "hound" or "wolf," though the sources you provided do not settle on one single derivation. Older etymological writers also proposed Hebrew and Dutch explanations, but these are less secure and likely reflect speculative scholarship rather than a firm surname history.
History
The name appears in historical surname dictionaries as both an English-looking locational surname and as a form connected with Irish surnames such as MacCone. Because the spelling is short and simple, it could also reflect anglicization or abbreviation of longer names in different places. Modern bearers in the United States may therefore have unrelated family lines under the same spelling.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One of the older dictionary traditions even tried to explain Cone as a Hebrew word for a bishop or priest, showing how inventive 19th-century surname etymology could be.
From the historical record
“French conduire, to conduct CONE. (Heb.) A bishop or priest; Jcoen, in the Dutch, sig- cifies bold, daring, intrepid. CONKLIN. (Dutch.) From Con, bold, wise, knowing, and Jclein, little or son, i. e., the son of Con. Konkelen, in Dutch, signifies to plot, intrigue, conspire. Ceangleann, Gaelic, the head of the…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names