Cordelia

Latin; Celtic

"heart; daughter of the sea"

Cordelia Origin and Meaning

The name Cordelia is a girl's name of Latin, Celtic origin meaning "heart; daughter of the sea".

Cordelia is exactly the kind of old-fashioned, grown-up name for girls that many parents are seeking for their daughters today. The name of King Lear's one sympathetic daughter, Cordelia has both style and substance along with its Shakespearean pedigree.

If you're torn between Cordelia and the equally lovely Cora, you can always choose Cordelia for long and then call her Cora for short—or Delia, Lia, Del, or even the extremely different Cordie.

Cordelia also appeared in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, as detective Cordelia Gray in P.D. James's mystery novels, and was promoted by a character on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel.

And then there's that quote from the heroine of Anne of Green Gables: "I would love to be called Cordelia. It's such a perfectly elegant name."

Cordelia Rank in US Top 1000

# 948 in the US

Cordelia Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

# 57 on Nameberry

Popularity of the name Cordelia

• 948 US 2015
• 57 Nameberry 2025
• 115 Unique 2023
• 669 Future 2028
• 965 England 2021

20 Names Similar to Cordelia

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Cordelia.

• Guinevere
• Isadora
• Delphine
• Daphne
• Evangeline
• Astrid
• Ophelia
• Beatrix
• Theodora
• Rosalind
• Minerva
• Odette
• Genevieve
• Calliope
• Seraphina
• Estelle
• Octavia
• Persephone
• Phoebe
• Helena

Famous People Named Cordelia

• Cordelia Queen consort of Aganippus of the Franks
• Cordelia Abidaoud Phoenician princess
• Cordelia Bugeja British actress
• Cordelia de Castellane French designer
• Cordelia Fine Canadian,British,Australian psychologist/writer
• Cordelia Agnes Greene physician/suffragist
• Cordelia Hawkins for whom the town of Cordele, Georgia was named
• Cordelia Scaife May American philanthropist
• Cordelia Adelaide Harvey American Civil War nurse
• (Henrietta) Cordelia Ray American poet and educator
• Cordelia Mendoza American antiquarian
• Cordelia Strube Canadian playwright/novelist
• Cordelia Creigh Wilson American painter
• Cordelia Elizabeth "Betty" Cook heroic American WWII combat nurse

The name Cordelia in Pop Culture

• Cordelia legendary Queen of the Britons; character in Shakespeare's "King Lear"
• Cordelia Chase character in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
• "Cordelia " novel by Winston Graham
• Cordelia character in"The Seducer's Diary" by Søren Kierkegaard
• Cordelia Gray the detective in PD James' mystery novels and movies.
• Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan character in the "Vorkosigan" novels
• Cordelia Starling character in video game "Lollipop Chainsaw"
• Cordelia Gi Randgriz (Valis: The Fantasm Soldier video game)
• Cordelia Banks PhD (State of Mind , TV show character)
• Cordelia Abbott "The Young And The Restless"
• Cordelia Flakk character in Jasper Fforde's "Lost in a Good Book"
• Cordelia Ransom character in the "Honorverse" novels by David Weber
• Cordelia Capulet Japanese anime character in "Romeo x Juliet"
• Cordelia Gallo Japanese anime character in "Gosick"
• Cordelia Glauca anime character in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes
• Cordelia Whinthrop Scott, Character in the movie Monte Carlo
• Cordelia pegasus knight from 3DS game "Fire Emblem: Awakening"
• Cordelia Foxx character in "American Horror Story: Coven"
• Cordelia Underwood title character in "Cordelia Underwood: Or, the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League," a novel by Van Reid, published 1999
• Cordelia character in the anime "Diabolik Lovers"
• Cordelia a song by The Tragically Hip
• Cordelia a moon of Uranus
• Cordelia Carstairs character in Cassandra Clare's "The Last Hours"
• Cordelia character in musical "Falsettos"
• Cordelia Bellamy character in the webcomic "Riverside Extras" by Miri Chamberlain
• Cordelia Rosewell The Red Queen in "Habromania"

International Variations of the name Cordelia

• Cordi Welsh