Cornelia

Spellings & scripts●(measured from records)

Locally spelled Kornelia in PL Poland.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●(measured from records)

Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.

How Cornelia is read●(measured from records)

Cornelia is one spelling over 3 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

• German38%

  ) Comelie; Komelia: weibl.

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• English34%

  A female given name from Latin in quiet use since the 18th century.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• Spanish9.4%

  No dictionary in our sources glosses Cornelia in Spanish.

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Other names spelled this way◐(inferred from the name graph)

Cornelia is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name15 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Peru

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French

  Also written Cornélia, Cornèlia, Cornelía, Cörnëliã, Corñeliâ

• Romanian given name3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Romania, United States, Spain, Philippines

  Also written Cornelià

• a separate name2 spellings in the group

  Also written Cornélia

• Ukrainian given name21 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, United States

  Languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish

  Also written Корнелія, Корнелия, Korneliya, Cornélia

56 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●(measured from records)

Cornelia is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Latin, feminine form of the gens name Cornelius

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• From the Latin feminine form of the old Roman family name pCornelius. It was borne in the 2nd century Bc by the mother of the revolutionary reformers Tiberius and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, and is still occasionally bestowed in her honour.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In Swedish, Cornelia är en femininform till → Cornelius. En känd namnbärare är artisten Cornelia Jakobs (f. 1992). I den rikssvenska almanackan 3 december.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• Feminine of corNELIUs.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name●(measured from records)

• Cornelia Sorabjib. 1866INIndian barrister, writer, and social reformer; first female graduate from Bombay University, first woman to study law at Oxford University; first Indian national to study at a British university (1866-1954)
• Corrie ten Boomb. 1892NLnot in their usual nameDutch resistance hero and writer
• Cornelia Otis Skinnerb. 1899USAmerican actress and author (1899–1979)
• Cornelia Boumanb. 1903NLDutch tennis player (1903-1998)
• Cornelia Froboessb. 1943DEGerman actress
• Cox Habbemab. 1944NLnot in their usual nameDutch television actor, film actor, theatre director and actor (1944–2016)
• Cornelia Funkeb. 1958DEGerman author (born 1958)
• Cornelia Bargmannb. 1961USAmerican neurobiologist
• Sandra Romainb. 1978ROnot in their usual nameRomanian pornographic actress
• Cornelia Jakobsb. 1992SESwedish singer and songwriter (1992–)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

How to address them○(machine-generated)

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

Evidence●(measured from records)

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the name Cornelia come from?

feminine form of the gens name Cornelius Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.

In which country does Cornelia have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 98 thousand people named Cornelia in Germany, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled cornelia.

What does the name Cornelia mean?

In English, A female given name from Latin in quiet use since the 18th century.

Is Cornelia a male or female name?

Cornelia is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What are other forms of the name Cornelia?

In the etymology graph, Nela, Kornelia and Nele are forms of the same name in other languages; Corrie is a recorded short or pet form.

How do you pronounce Cornelia?

A machine transcription gives /kʰɔɐneːlɪa/ (IPA) for German.

How common is the name Cornelia?

In Sweden, the national register counted 10,916 people named Cornelia, about 1 in 935 residents.

How common is Cornelia compared with other names?

In Germany, Cornelia is the 183rd most common given name of 156,202 given names recorded there.