Coulls ("kʊlz") is a surname that has its origins in Cornwall, UK. The earliest known references to the surname are found in the town of Helston. It is a branch of the Cowls ("kɒlz") surname, which has a silent "w" and was prominent in Porthleven.
Two members of the Coulls family, John and Daniel, can be seen in South Australia's government records arriving from Helston in 1839, aboard the fateful ship the Java. John and Daniel would settle in an area that would become known as Athelstone, South Australia, or "At Helstone" - a reference to John and Daniel Coulls roots at Helston in Cornwall. Due to the timing of John and Daniel's arrival in South Australia during its formative years, there remains a number of indications of the Coulls family history, including Coulls Road in Banksia Park.
The most well known contemporary Coulls descendent in Australia is the actress Deborah Coulls who has appeared in numerous Australian television shows, such as Skyways and Prisoner: Cell Block H.
Other descending members of the Coulls family have spread out across numerous provinces in Canada. The most well known of these is Toronto's mobile software developer Jason Coulls, who is known for his work on the IHeartRadio app as the sole iOS developer between versions 2.4 and 3.01 of the app, singlehandedly writing software for about 4 million users at that time, as well as being a respected local authority in Toronto's technical community on security failures within many of Canada's national bank's, particularly Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and one of its rivals, Scotiabank.