Corey
Feminine · “Not established”
Corey is given to both — 9,056 girls and 185,020 boys since 1880. See Corey as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Corey ran hard for boys in the 1970s and 1980s and pulled a share of girls along with it, which is the usual pattern for a two-syllable surname name with a soft ending. Its female peak is 1986, at the height of the whole family's run.
How old is the name Corey?
Corey first appears in US birth records in 1945 — 80 years ago. The typical Corey alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 8,700 people named Corey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Corey most popular?
Corey peaked in 1986, reaching #522 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 4,716 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Kori to Corey
Our story of Corey
The story of Corey in America is a story about a decade rather than about an etymology. In the 1960s it is a small boy's name. Through the 1970s and 1980s it climbs into the top hundred for boys, and the two Coreys of teenage film — Haim and Feldman — put it in front of everyone born in that period. And in the same years the name crosses to girls, which is what nearly always happens to a boy's name that ends in an unstressed -ey or -ie: Ashley, Kelly, Shelby, Whitney, Corey. The crossing is usually one-way and usually fatal to the boys' version, though Corey held on longer than most. The girls' peak in 1986 is the crest of that crossing, and both versions have declined together since.
Meaningnot established
Not established; several unrelated sources
Corey has at least three plausible sources and no source establishes which produced the modern name. The Irish surname Ó Comhraidhe is one, generally read as descendant of Comhraidhe. A Norse personal name Kori, borne into northern England by settlers, is another. A place name in Somerset is a third. Sources conflict and the common gloss the hollow rests on the Gaelic coire, cauldron, which is not securely linked to the surname.
How the name formed
- Kori
- Corey
Related forms: Ó Comhraidhe · Kori
Pronouncing Corey
KOR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. There is no ambiguity in speech; the ambiguity is entirely in the spelling, which runs Corey, Cory, Cori, Corrie and Korey.
Nicknames for Corey
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
- 1945
- Most girls named
- 1985378 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #522reached in 1986
- Change vs 2023
- +20.0%24 in 2025, from 20
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.
Corey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Comhraidhe in Irish — related form
- Kori in Old Norse — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Coreys among us
people named Corey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Corey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Corey
- #5238
- Corey on the 2025 chart
- #929
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Corey went to 24 girls in 2025, but Korey is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 929th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,309 places above the chart.
- Corey24
- Korey7
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Corey 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 Mariann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Corey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Mariann climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Mariann's path sketches the road Corey is walking now.
Corey 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
Corey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Corey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Everyone can say it correctly on first sight.
- Cori and Coco both work as short forms.
- It is a genuinely unisex name with a long record for both sexes.
- The meaning cannot be established, and sources disagree flatly.
- Corey, Cory, Cori and Korey are four spellings of one sound.
- It is strongly dated to the 1970s and 1980s for both sexes.
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What they receive
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Corey
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Coreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 8,700 people named Corey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Corey?
- Corey is the most-used spelling in US records — 24 of the 31 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Korey.
- How popular is the name Corey in 2025?
- Corey ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Corey?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Corey — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Corey with classmates?
- Corey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Corey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Corey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Corey and another name?
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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
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