Cordelia
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in Spanish: Probably from Córdula; name from the Holinshed Chronicles, popularized by Shakespeare
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/kɔɹdiliə/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Cordelia is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country.
- NGNigeria≈1 in 7K(inferred from the name graph)
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 21K
- USUnited States1 in 50K
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.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 301 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 7.0K (inferred from the name graph)
≈31,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Nigeria, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Probably from Córdula; name from the Holinshed Chronicles, popularized by Shakespeare.
Sources 1
- Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios
How Cordelia is read(measured from records)
Cordelia is one spelling over 2 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.
- English72%
youngest daughter in King Lear,
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
Shakespeare
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
- Spanish7.3%
Probably from Córdula; name from the Holinshed Chronicles, popularized by Shakespeare.
as a nameDiccionario etimológico de nombres propios
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 We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Cordelia, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Cordelia 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 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | ≈31,000 est. | ≈1 in 7K | — | Cordelia | 47 |
| US United States | 6,668 | 1 in 50K | 6.7K | Cordelia | 301 |
| ZA South Africa | ≈2,600 est. | ≈1 in 21K | — | Cordelia | 26 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈1,300 est. | ≈1 in 52K | 3 | Cordelia | 152 |
| ID Indonesia | ≈1,200 est. | ≈1 in 227K | — | Cordelia | 35 |
| SE Sweden | 260 | 1 in 39K | 260 | Cordelia | 12 |
| SG Singapore | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 50K | — | Cordelia | 24 |
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; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population). 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)
Cordelia is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Name used by Shakespeare for King Lear’s one virtuous daughter. It is not clear where he got it from; it does not seem to have a genuine Celtic origin. It may bea fanciful elaboration of Latin cor ‘heart’ (genitive cordis). CORDELIA CORDULA
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In French, Origine grecque; féminin de Corneille, lié à l'épouse de Pompée et à la fille de Scipion.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In German, ) Kordelia: weibl. Vom., derauf die Gestalt der Cordelia in Shakespeares
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
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)
- Mary Stopfordb. 1837not in their usual name(1831-1912)
- Cordelia Wilsonb. 1873USartist (1873-1953)
- Cordelia Drexel Biddleb. 1898USAmerican socialite and writer (1898–1984)
- Cordelia Edvardsonb. 1929SEGerman-born Swedish journalist, author and Holocaust survivor
- Cordelia Gonzálezb. 1957USactress
- Cordelia Strubeb. 1960CACanadian writer
- Cordelia Schmidb. 1967DEcomputer vision researcher
- Cordelia Fineb. 1975AUCanadian-born British psychologist and writer
- Cordelia Bugejab. 1976GBBritish actress
- Cordelia Wegeb. 1976DEGerman actress
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)
Attested in 58 sources across 34 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 6.7K | #3,225 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 260 | #4,335 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 258 | — |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 102 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 10 | #3,225 |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2020 | 3 | #765 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2025 | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | A Concise Dictionary of First Names (Hanks & Hodges, 2001) | — | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | The Penguin Book of Baby Names (David Pickering) | — | — | — |
Reference works 3
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
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 Cordelia mean, and where does it come from?
- Probably from Córdula; name from the Holinshed Chronicles, popularized by Shakespeare. Recorded by Diccionario etimológico de nombres propios.
- How do you pronounce Cordelia?
- A machine transcription gives /kɔɹdiliə/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Cordelia a male or female name?
- Cordelia 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.
- In which country does Cordelia have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 31 thousand people named Cordelia in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled cordelia.
- How common is the name Cordelia?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,668 people named Cordelia in 2020, about 1 in 50 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Cordelia?
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/cordeliaThe 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, “Cordelia”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.