Cordelia
Feminine · “Contested”
Shakespeare gave this name to the youngest daughter in King Lear, and he took it from a much older British chronicle where she appears as Cordeilla. Three hundred years later, L. M. Montgomery had Anne Shirley beg to be called Cordelia instead of Anne, because it sounded so much grander — proof that the name was already doing that work by 1908. Four syllables, with the stress landing in the middle: kor-DEEL-ya.
How old is the name Cordelia?
Cordelia was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cordelia alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 7,800 people named Cordelia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cordelia most popular?
Cordelia peaked in 1880, reaching #204 nationally. Today it ranks #980, 776 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Cordelia appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Creiddylad to Cordelia
The story of Cordelia
The name begins in medieval British legend: Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing his history of the kings of Britain in the twelfth century, named King Leir's faithful youngest daughter Cordeilla, a figure with roots in Welsh tradition as Creiddylad. The story passed through Tudor chronicles and a stage play before Shakespeare reworked it around 1606, smoothing the spelling to Cordelia and fixing it in English forever. From the play it moved into ordinary use, helped along by the nineteenth-century taste for long, literary, Latinate girls' names — Cordelia sat comfortably beside Cornelia, Amelia and Ophelia. It has never gone away since, and it has been continuously represented in American records rather than revived from nothing.
Meaningscholars disagree
Contested — often read through Latin cor, "heart"
Two readings compete. The oldest form, Cordeilla, comes from Geoffrey of Monmouth's twelfth-century Historia Regum Britanniae and is generally connected to the Welsh Creiddylad, whose own meaning has never been settled. Separately, a long tradition reads the name through Latin cor, cordis, "heart" — an association reinforced by the unrelated Latin name Cordula, "little heart," which it is often grouped with. The heart reading is widely repeated and genuinely old; it is not the same as the etymological origin.
How the name formed
- Creiddylad
- Cordeilla
- Cordelia
Related forms: Cordelia · Cordelia · Cordélie · Kordelia · Kordélia · Cordula
Pronouncing Cordelia
kor-DEEL-ya
Also said kor-DEE-lee-uh, with four full syllables. Both are standard in English; the three-syllable version is the more common everyday one. The spelling gives no trouble once heard.
Nicknames for Cordelia
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2016263 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #204reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +6.6%258 in 2025, from 242
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Cordelia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cordelia in Italian — same name
- Cordelia in German — same name
- Cordélie in French — related form
- Kordelia in Polish — spelling variant
- Kordélia in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Cordula in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Cordelias among us
people named Cordelia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 6,230 born in 2025 was named Cordelia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Cordelia sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Cordelia is headed
Cordelia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Cordelia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cordelia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Several ready-made short forms — Cora, Delia, Della — each a real name on its own, so the child has formal and informal registers from day one.
- Spelled the way it sounds, and long familiar in English, so it rarely needs repeating twice.
- Nearly four centuries of continuous literary anchoring in King Lear, plus a place in Anne of Green Gables.
- Recognizable across Italian, German, Polish and Hungarian with only small changes to the spelling.
- Shakespeare's Cordelia is the loyal daughter — and she dies at the end of the play. Anyone who knows King Lear will make the connection, usually with affection, but the association is with a tragedy.
- Cornelia, Cordelia and Delilah get mixed up by ear. Expect a certain amount of gentle correction, particularly over the phone.
- Four syllables is a lot of name for a form, and the pronunciation splits between kor-DEEL-ya and kor-DEE-lee-uh — worth deciding early which one your family uses.
- In American classrooms it is unlikely she will meet another; the name is far better represented among older generations than among children.
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What they receive
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Cordelia
Feminine · #980 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cordelias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,800 people named Cordelia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cordelia in 2025?
- Cordelia ranks #980 among US girl names in 2025, with 258 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cordelia?
- About 1 in every 6,230 US girls born in 2025 was named Cordelia — 258 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cordelia with classmates?
- Cordelia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cordelia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Khadija#980 · Ashlynn#980 · Roselyn#979 · Kori#978 · Akira#983 · Arely#983 · Kamiyah#983 · Skyla#983
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cordelia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cordelia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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