Cordova
A Spanish surname and place-name surname meaning “from Córdoba,” the historic city in Andalusia.
The #762 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 6,815 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Cordova is the older English spelling of the Spanish surname Córdova/Córdoba, referring to the city of Córdoba in southern Spain. In surname use, it originally identified someone as “the Cordovan,” meaning a person from that city. The place-name itself is ancient, going back through Latin and earlier Iberian forms, but the surname’s meaning is simply locative: “from Córdoba.”
History
Historical surname writers repeatedly connect Cordova with people from Córdoba in Spain, and the form also appears in phrases like “the Cordovan,” an older English label for goods or people from that city. The name spread widely in Spanish-speaking regions and is especially familiar through noble and historical figures such as Gonzalo de Córdoba. In English-language records, Cordova is often treated as a variant spelling of Córdova rather than a separate origin.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same city name gave English the word cordovan for a type of fine leather once associated with Córdoba.
From the historical record
“Cordwln, Corden, Cording, Cordln. — Local, 'the Cordovan,' an smigrant Irom Cordova, in CORNAUi Spain; v. Cordiner. It is- very”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances