Cornelius
given name · Latin script
Meaning: From the personal name Cornelius, probably a derivative of cornu ‘horn’
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/kɔɹniliəs/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Cornelius is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 1.5K(inferred from the name graph)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 7.9K
- DEGermany≈1 in 10K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- 2 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 442 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 1.5K (inferred from the name graph)
≈57,000 people, est.
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
South Africa, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
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)
From the personal name Cornelius, probably a derivative of cornu ‘horn’.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 12 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Cornelius counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈57,000 est. | ≈1 in 24K | — | Cornelius | 11 |
| ZA South Africa | #127 | ≈39,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.5K | — | Cornelius | 76 |
| NG Nigeria | — | ≈27,000 est. | ≈1 in 7.9K | — | Cornelius | 66 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈20,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.6K | — | Cornelius | 23 |
| US United States | #992 | 17,595 | 1 in 19K | 20K | Cornelius | 442 |
| DE Germany | #905 | ≈7,700 est. | ≈1 in 10K | — | Cornelius | 169 |
| DK Denmark | — | 1,365 | 1 in 4.3K | 1.4K | — | 2 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Cornelius is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Cornelius is a classic and distinguished masculine name of Latin origin, meaning "horn." It is associated with the biblical centurion respected for his piety, generosity, and profound faith. The story of Cornelius represents a key moment of inclusion and openness in Christian history, making the name a symbol of faith that transcends cultural boundaries.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name Cornelius is a Roman family name from the 'gens Cornelia', one of the most distinguished families of ancient Rome. It is widely believed to derive from the Latin word "cornu," meaning "horn".
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In Irish, Latin name, perhaps ‘horned one’; used to anglicise Connor.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, Latin Cornelius; not found as an English name until the 16th century, when it was brought back by returning sectaries; first attested Leuekyn Cornelys 1354 (ColchCt)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In German, Latinized surname in -ius; from Cornelius. Bearer count: 1654. Variant form: Kornelius. Demonstrates humanist Latinization (morphological transposition).
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 3: Morphologie der Familiennamen
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)
- Cornelius Jansenb. 1585NLBishop and theologian (1585-1638)
- Cornelius Vanderbiltb. 1794USAmerican businessman and tycoon (1794–1877)
- Jacobus Kapteynb. 1851NLnot in their usual nameDutch astronomer, best known for his extensive studies of the Milky Way and as the first discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation (1851-1922)
- Cor van Goghb. 1867NLnot in their usual nameDutch draughtsperson and soldier
- John C. Stennisb. 1901USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician (1901-1995)
- Cornel Wildeb. 1912USnot in their usual nameHungarian-American actor and film director
- Cornelius Castoriadisb. 1922FRGreek-French philosopher (1922–1997)
- Sam Phillipsb. 1923USnot in their usual nameAmerican businessman, record executive, record producer and DJ (1923–2003)
- Connie Mack IIIb. 1940USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician from Florida
- Chevy Chaseb. 1943USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor, comedian and writer (born 1943)
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)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 90 sources across 47 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 17K | #1,730 |
| DK Denmark | Danmarks Statistik — Hvor mange hedder...? (living-population name counts) | — | 1.4K | #273 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 161 | #1,730 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 82 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1990 | 5 | — |
Reference works 6
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Søndergaard, Georg, Danske efternavne (Lademann 1984/1991)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Cornelius mean, and where does it come from?
- From the personal name Cornelius, probably a derivative of cornu ‘horn’. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What are other forms of the name Cornelius?
- In the etymology graph, Connie, Cornelio and Cornelis are forms of the same name in other languages; Niels is a recorded short or pet form.
- In which country does Cornelius have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 57 thousand people named Cornelius in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled cornelius.
- Is Cornelius a male or female name?
- Cornelius is a male 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.
- How do you pronounce Cornelius?
- A machine transcription gives /kɔɹniliəs/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Cornelius?
- In the United States, the national register counted 17,595 people named Cornelius in 2020, about 1 in 19 thousand residents.
- How common is Cornelius compared with other names?
- In South Africa, Cornelius is the 127th most common given name of 189,620 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Cornelius?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/corneliusThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Cornelius” — the 127th most common given name in South Africa. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.