How rare is the name Cornelia?

10,664 people in the United States have the first name Cornelia, about 1 in 28,323. It ranks #2,358 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

CORNELIA

#2,358

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
10,664
About
1 in 28,323
This common or more
79.5%
Who bears it

Of the 10,664 people named Cornelia, 62.2% reported their origin as White, 24.2% as Black and 6.8% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are female (99.5%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Cornelia peaked in 1921, when 477 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18802025
Peak year
1921
Births that year
477
In 2025*
51 ▼89%
Recorded as
almost entirely female

At least 22,102 babies have been given the name since 1880. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Cornelia by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1880s, when it ranked #315. The largest share of babies named Cornelia, 37.1%, were born between 1901 and 1927, the Greatest Generation's birth years.

1880s#3151,020
1890s#3591,332
1900s#3921,630
1910s#5163,455
1920s#6233,965
1930s#7222,738
1940s#8652,509
1950s#1,2401,813
1960s#1,5651,315
1970s#2,391700
1980s#3,311526
1990s#5,791320
2000s#9,216228
2010s#8,139293
2020s#6,235258
Before 190111.5%
Greatest Generation 1901–2737.1%
Silent Generation 1928–4522.4%
Baby boom 1946–6416.1%
Generation X 1965–805.7%
Millennials 1981–963.3%
Generation Z 1997–121.6%
2013 and later2.2%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Cornelia is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Cornelia has been most common in South Carolina (4.3×), Alabama (3.1×), and North Carolina (3.1×), and least common in Kansas (0.22×).

13,917 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Cornelia

#2,356 Sammie · 10,686#2,357 Adonis · 10,674#2,359 Thiago · 10,663#2,360 Killian · 10,658

Spelled almost the same

7 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Cornelia, most common first.

#1,730 Cornelius · 17,595#3,190 Cornell · 6,794#4,837 Cornelio · 3,724#9,678 Cornel · 1,423#15,884 Cornelis · 718#25,961 Corneliu · 362#44,359 Cornella · 156

Also a last name

As a last name, Cornelia ranks #64,360 of 156,621, with 334 people. See Cornelia as a last name

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