An English and Irish surname the Cobb family name came from the Old English term ‘cobba’ which referred to a large and powerful man. The Old Norse term of ‘kobbi’ was also a large man.

Spelling variations for Cobb include Cobbe and Cobba.

In England the earliest Cobb families lived in the Suffolk area. They resettled along the eastern coastal areas of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Kent, Durham and down to Dorset and Hampshire. In Scotland the regions of Aberdeenshire and Angus along with Lanarkshire have the greater Cobb populations.

Within the United States the Cobb name is primarily in Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, New York, Massachusetts and Virginia.

Famous: Ty Cobb (champion baseball player), George L. Cobb (musical ragtime composer), Humphrey Cobb (novelist), Jerrie Cobb (trained as a Mercury astronaut), Lee J. Cobb (actor), Reggie Cobb (professional football player), Will D. Cobb (songwriter), Stephen Euin Cobb (science fiction writer) and Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb (Civil War Confederate general from Georgia).