Kory
Masculine · “descendant of Comhradh”
Kory is given to both — 14,385 boys and 1,338 girls since 1880. See Kory as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Kory is a respelling of Corey, and Corey has two possible ancestries — an Irish family name and a Norse personal one. Neither has won, and the modern name carries both.
How old is the name Kory?
Kory first appears in US birth records in 1952 — 73 years ago. The typical Kory alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 13,500 people named Kory are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kory most popular?
Kory peaked in 1988, reaching #360 nationally. Today it ranks #3314, 2,954 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Corey to Kory
The story of Kory
Norse settlement in Orkney and Shetland left personal names behind that became surnames, and Kori is one of them. Independently, Irish Ó Comhraidhe was anglicized as Corey and Curry. Both reached America, and Corey became a widely used given name in the 1960s and 1970s. Kory is one of the K respellings of that period, part of the same fashion that gave Kristin and Kameron their initial letters.
Meaningscholars disagree
descendant of Comhradh, or from Kori
One line is Irish: Ó Comhraidhe, a family name from a personal name sometimes read as counsel. The other is Norse: Kori, a personal name recorded in the Northern Isles, which gave rise to place and family names there. Both fed the English surname Corey.
How the name formed
- Corey
- Kory
Related forms: Corey · Ó Comhraidhe · Kori
Pronouncing Kory
KOR-ee
Two syllables, first stressed. Every spelling of the name sounds the same.
Nicknames for Kory
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
- 1952
- Most boys named
- 1989601 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #360reached in 1988
- Change vs 2024
- −16.7%35 in 2025, from 42
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.
Kory in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Corey in English — spelling variant
- Ó Comhraidhe in Irish — related form
- Kori in Norse — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Korys among us
people named Kory are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 48,802 born in 2025 was named Kory
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kory
- #3314
- Kory on the 2025 chart
- #698
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kory went to 35 boys in 2025, but Cory, Kori 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 — 2,616 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 7,299 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 48,802 for Kory 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 Coleman test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kory's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Coleman climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Coleman's path sketches the road Kory is walking now.
Kory 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 Kory is headed
Kory 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.
Kory beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kory in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two documented ancestries, Irish and Norse, both real.
- Four letters and two syllables, easy to write and to say.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Corey and Cory are both far more written and will be used for him.
- It is strongly associated with a particular decade of American naming.
- Kory, Cory, Corey and Korey are four live spellings of one name.
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Kory
Masculine · #3314 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Korys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,500 people named Kory are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kory?
- Kory is one of 5 recorded spellings. Cory is the more common one — 160 births in 2025 against 35 for Kory.
- How popular is the name Kory in 2025?
- Kory ranks #3314 among US boy names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kory?
- About 1 in every 48,802 US boys born in 2025 was named Kory — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kory with classmates?
- Kory will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kory
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rainier#3314 · Coulter#3314 · Caio#3314 · Kaydon#3314 · Daksh#3314 · Kree#3314 · Calen#3314 · Mathis#3314
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kory? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kory and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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