Cordia
Feminine
Cordia is a clipping of Cordelia, and Cordelia's story ended differently before Shakespeare got hold of it. In the chronicle versions the youngest daughter raises an army, defeats her sisters, restores her father to his throne and rules after him for years. The tragedy is an invention, and it was not universally welcomed: for a century and a half English audiences watched a rewritten version with the older ending restored.
How old is the name Cordia?
Cordia was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cordia alive today was born around 1917, making them about 108 years old. About 300 people named Cordia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cordia most popular?
Cordia peaked in 1882, reaching #560 nationally. See the whole 1882 chart.
Where it comes from
From A figure in a twelfth-century British chronicle to Cordia
The story of Cordia
In Geoffrey of Monmouth she wins. She marries a Frankish king, invades with his support, restores her father, buries him and reigns for five years before her nephews depose her. Holinshed keeps the ending, and so does the older play Shakespeare was working from. He changed it, and the change was found unbearable: within decades a version was staged in which she survives and marries, and that version held the English stage from the sixteen eighties until the eighteen thirties, roughly a hundred and fifty years during which almost nobody in Britain saw the play as written. The original ending only came back permanently in the nineteenth century, which is a useful corrective to the idea that great works are received as their authors left them.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name comes from a figure in a twelfth-century British chronicle and its origin is not established. The connection to the Latin word for a heart, which is printed everywhere, is a folk etymology attached long afterwards because the letters happen to line up. The Welsh material behind the chronicle offers other possibilities and none has been demonstrated.
How the name formed
- A figure in a twelfth-century British chronicle
- Winning in every version until Shakespeare
- A rewritten happy ending holding the stage for a century and a half
- Cordia as an American clipping of the name
Pronouncing Cordia
KOR-dee-uh
Three syllables, stress on the first. It is also, entirely separately, the botanical name of a genus of flowering trees, named in the eighteenth century after a German apothecary, and said the same way.
Nicknames for Cordia
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 191743 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #560reached in 1882
- Change vs 1991
- −25.0%6 in 2007, from 8
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.
Cordias among us
people named Cordia are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Cordia sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, clear and easy to say on a first attempt.
- Cora and Dia are two complete names available from one certificate.
- It carries a genuinely interesting literary history that most people do not know.
- It reads as a clipping, and people will ask what it is short for.
- There is no established meaning, and the heart reading everybody offers is not one.
- It is very firmly of the nineteenth century and has had no revival.
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What they receive
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Cordia
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cordias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Cordia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cordia in 2025?
- Cordia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cordia with classmates?
- Cordia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cordia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cordia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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