Cordell
Masculine · “little rope”
Cordell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,840 boys against 148 girls since 1880.
Cordell is a rope-maker — the Old French cordelle, a small cord — and the surname named the man who twisted them.
How old is the name Cordell?
Cordell first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Cordell alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 9,300 people named Cordell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cordell most popular?
Cordell peaked in 1998, reaching #531 nationally. Today it ranks #1976, 1,445 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From khorde to Cordell
The story of Cordell
Rope-making was a substantial medieval trade — ships, wells and cranes all depended on it — and gave surnames across England and France. Cordell Hull was Roosevelt's secretary of state for eleven years and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his part in founding the United Nations. The name is in current American use.
Meaning
little rope, cord-maker
From the Old French cordelle, a diminutive of corde, 'rope', from the Latin chorda and the Greek khorde, 'gut string'. It was an occupational byname for a rope-maker. The same root gives cord, chord and cordon. The etymology is documented.
How the name formed
- khorde
- corde
- cordelle
- Cordell
Related forms: Cordel · Cordel
Pronouncing Cordell
kor-DEL
Two syllables, stress on the second. Cordell and Cordel are said identically.
Nicknames for Cordell
Moderate
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 1999343 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #531reached in 1998
- Change vs 2023
- −13.5%77 in 2025, from 89
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.
Cordell in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cordel in French — related form
- Cordel in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Ohio.
Cordells among us
people named Cordell are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 22,183 born in 2025 was named Cordell
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cordell
- #1976
- Cordell on the 2025 chart
- #821
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cordell went to 77 boys in 2025, but Kordell is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 107, which makes it the 821st most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,155 places above the chart.
- Cordell77
- Kordell30
About 1 boy in 15,963 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 22,183 for Cordell itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sherwood test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cordell's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sherwood climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sherwood's path sketches the road Cordell is walking now.
Cordell 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 Cordell is headed
Cordell 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.
Cordell beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cordell in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The rope-maker meaning is concrete and records a real and necessary trade.
- A Nobel Peace laureate and founder of the UN carries it.
- The end stress gives it a strong rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- The Cord clipping is an ordinary English noun.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
- It is period-coded to the later twentieth century in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cordell to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Cordell? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cordell
Masculine · #1976 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Cordells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,300 people named Cordell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cordell?
- Cordell is the most-used spelling in US records — 77 of the 107 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kordell.
- How popular is the name Cordell in 2025?
- Cordell ranks #1976 among US boy names in 2025, with 77 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cordell?
- About 1 in every 22,183 US boys born in 2025 was named Cordell — 77 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cordell with classmates?
- Cordell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cordell
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Winter#1976 · Donte#1976 · Jacobo#1976 · Khyree#1976 · Kru#1976 · Jaleel#1976 · Arrow#1976 · Davon#1976
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cordell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cordell and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle