Korey
Masculine
Korey is given to both — 11,443 boys and 1,420 girls since 1880. See Korey as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Giles Corey was pressed to death at Salem in 1692 for refusing to enter a plea. Stones were piled on him for two days and he would not speak, because a man who did not plead could not be convicted and his property could not be taken from his sons. What he did say, reportedly, was more weight.
How old is the name Korey?
Korey first appears in US birth records in 1953 — 72 years ago. The typical Korey alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 11,000 people named Korey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Korey most popular?
Korey peaked in 1989, reaching #427 nationally. Today it ranks #2718, 2,291 places below that high. See the whole 1989 chart.
Where it comes from
From Corey to Korey
The story of Korey
Ireland absorbed a considerable amount of Norse naming during three centuries of Viking settlement, and a surprising number of Irish surnames carry it. Doyle is dubh gall, the dark foreigner, meaning a Dane. MacAuliffe is son of Olaf. Higgins, Cotter, Broderick and Coppinger all have Norse elements. Corey may belong to that set or to a native Irish one; the record does not settle it. The Salem bearer is a separate matter and the most famous American use of the surname: a farmer in his eighties who understood the law well enough to know that silence protected his family, and who was killed slowly for it.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Corey is an Irish surname, O Comhraidhe, and possibly also a Norse one, from the personal name Kori carried into Ireland by Viking settlers. Neither root has an agreed meaning. Korey is the American respelling with a K and the -ey ending.
How the name formed
- Corey
- Korey
Related forms: O Comhraidhe
Pronouncing Korey
KOR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Corey, Cory, Korey and Kori are said identically; the spelling differs four ways and the sound does not differ at all.
Nicknames for Korey
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
- 1953
- Most boys named
- 1990507 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #427reached in 1989
- Change vs 2024
- −6.0%47 in 2025, from 50
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.
Korey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Comhraidhe in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Koreys among us
people named Korey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 36,342 born in 2025 was named Korey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Korey
- #2718
- Korey on the 2025 chart
- #586
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Korey went to 47 boys in 2025, but Corey is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 374, which makes it the 586th most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,132 places above the chart.
- Corey327
- Korey47
About 1 boy in 4,567 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 36,342 for Korey 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 Russ test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Korey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Russ climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Russ's path sketches the road Korey is walking now.
Korey 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 Korey is headed
Korey is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Korey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Korey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables that everyone reads correctly on sight.
- It serves either child, and the records show a real share of both.
- The K makes the first consonant unambiguous, which the C does not.
- Corey and Cory are both much commoner, so the spelling will be given every time.
- It leans to boys but takes a real minority of girls, so forms will guess and sometimes be wrong.
- Neither of its possible roots has an established meaning.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Korey
Masculine · #2718 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Koreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Korey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Korey?
- Korey is one of 2 recorded spellings. Corey is the more common one — 327 births in 2025 against 47 for Korey.
- How popular is the name Korey in 2025?
- Korey ranks #2718 among US boy names in 2025, with 47 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Korey?
- About 1 in every 36,342 US boys born in 2025 was named Korey — 47 in all.
- Will my child share the name Korey with classmates?
- Korey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Korey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Einar#2718 · Kurtis#2718 · Sasha#2718 · Jovany#2718 · Ahsan#2718 · Xavien#2718 · Yassin#2718 · Unknown#2718
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Korey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Korey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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