Kori
Masculine
Kori is given to both — 1,565 boys and 14,822 girls since 1880. See Kori as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kori is a spelling of Corey, whose origin is genuinely double — a Norse personal name and an Irish surname both fed it.
How old is the name Kori?
Kori first appears in US birth records in 1962 — 63 years ago. The typical Kori alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 1,500 people named Kori are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kori most popular?
Kori peaked in 1989, reaching #1452 nationally. Today it ranks #3949, 2,497 places below that high. See the whole 1989 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Kori
Ours, offered as ours. The Norse line is the more interesting one: Kori appears in Scandinavian records as a personal name, the Vikings settled the Isle of Man and the Irish Sea coasts heavily, and the surname Corey clusters exactly where they did. That is circumstantial rather than proven. The Irish Ó Comhraidhe is a separate family and reached the same English spelling. Kori with a k is a twentieth-century American respelling of the result.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
One line runs from Old Norse Kori, a personal name of uncertain sense, through the Isle of Man and northern England. Another runs from Irish Ó Comhraidhe, generally read from a word for a spear or for counsel. Neither is settled.
Pronouncing Kori
KOR-ee
Two syllables, first stressed. Kori and Corey are said identically.
Nicknames for Kori
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
- 1962
- Most boys named
- 198957 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1452reached in 1989
- Change vs 2024
- +3.8%27 in 2025, from 26
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.
Kori in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Corey in English — spelling variant
- Ó Comhraidhe in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, North Carolina, New York.
Koris among us
people named Kori are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 63,262 born in 2025 was named Kori
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kori
- #3949
- Kori on the 2025 chart
- #698
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kori went to 27 boys in 2025, but Cory, Kory and Cori and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 234, which makes it the 698th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,251 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 7,299 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 63,262 for Kori 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 Tara test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kori's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tara climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tara's path sketches the road Kori is walking now.
Kori 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 Kori is headed
Kori 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.
Kori beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kori in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables, about as easy to write as a name gets.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Two documented ancestries, Norse and Irish, both real.
- Corey and Cory are both far more common and will be written for him.
- It is now given more often to girls, so assumptions may run that way.
- There is no settled meaning for either ancestry.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kori
Masculine · #3949 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Koris are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Kori are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kori?
- Kori is one of 5 recorded spellings. Cory is the more common one — 160 births in 2025 against 27 for Kori.
- How popular is the name Kori in 2025?
- Kori ranks #3949 among US boy names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kori?
- About 1 in every 63,262 US boys born in 2025 was named Kori — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kori with classmates?
- Kori will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kori
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stewart#3949 · Tillman#3949 · Ashley#3949 · Alfonzo#3949 · Blane#3949 · Brayton#3949 · Omega#3949 · Rufus#3949
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kori? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kori and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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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