In 2025, 51 US girls were named Cornelia, making it the 3,138th most common girls’ name of the year, up 700 places from #3,838 in 2024. That is 12 more than the 39 girls named Cornelia in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #147, reached in 1880. The most girls given the name in a single year was 477, in 1921. For comparison, it was #4,883 in 2015 and #588 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Cornelia in every one of the 146 years from 1880 to 2025; in 1880 there were 94 babies with the name. In all, 22,102 US babies have been given the name, 99.8% of them girls and 0.1% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1920s, with 3,965 babies named Cornelia.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 401 US girls were named Cornelia; the busiest of those years was 2023, with 53. In 2025 that was about 1 in 31,515 of the girls in SSA’s list for the year.
Rarer spellings such as Kornelia and Cornellia are summarised on this page. The open nickname list we use links it to Cornie, Corny, Nelia, Nelle and Nelly.
Meaning
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Wikidata records this spelling as a given name in Dutch, German and Italian. That is where the name is used, not necessarily where it comes from.