Cordelia

Heart
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."

# 948 in the US

Cordelia Rank in US Top 1000

# 32 on Nameberry

Cordelia Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

Cordelia Popularity

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Famous People Named Cordelia

  • CordeliaQueen consort of Aganippus of the Franks
  • Cordelia AbidaoudPhoenician princess
  • Cordelia BugejaBritish actress
  • Cordelia de CastellaneFrench designer
  • Cordelia FineCanadian,British,Australian psychologist/writer
  • Cordelia Agnes Greenephysician/suffragist
  • Cordelia Hawkinsfor whom the town of Cordele, Georgia was named
  • Cordelia Scaife MayAmerican philanthropist
  • Cordelia Adelaide HarveyAmerican Civil War nurse
  • (Henrietta) Cordelia RayAmerican poet and educator
  • Cordelia MendozaAmerican antiquarian
  • Cordelia StrubeCanadian playwright/novelist
  • Cordelia Creigh WilsonAmerican painter
  • Cordelia Elizabeth "Betty" Cookheroic American WWII combat nurse

Cordelia in Pop Culture

  • Cordelialegendary Queen of the Britons; character in Shakespeare's "King Lear"
  • Cordelia Chasecharacter in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
  • "Cordelia" novel by Winston Graham
  • Cordeliacharacter in"The Seducer's Diary" by Søren Kierkegaard
  • Cordelia Graythe detective in PD James' mystery novels and movies.
  • Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigancharacter in the "Vorkosigan" novels
  • Cordelia Starlingcharacter in video game "Lollipop Chainsaw"
  • Cordelia Gi Randgriz (Valis: The Fantasm Soldiervideo game)
  • Cordelia (Dark Horse comic book character)
  • Cordelia Frost (Marvel comic book character)
  • Cordelia BanksPhD (State of Mind , TV show character)
  • Cordelia Abbott"The Young And The Restless"
  • Cordelia Flakkcharacter in Jasper Fforde's "Lost in a Good Book"
  • Cordelia Ransomcharacter in the "Honorverse" novels by David Weber
  • Cordelia CapuletJapanese anime character in "Romeo x Juliet"
  • Cordelia GalloJapanese anime character in "Gosick"
  • Cordelia Glaucaanime character in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes
  • Cordelia WhinthropScott, Character in the movie Monte Carlo
  • Cordeliapegasus knight from 3DS game "Fire Emblem: Awakening"
  • Cordelia Foxxcharacter in "American Horror Story: Coven"
  • Cordelia Underwoodtitle character in "Cordelia Underwood: Or, the Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League," a novel by Van Reid, published 1999
  • Cordeliacharacter in the anime "Diabolik Lovers"
  • Cordeliaa song by The Tragically Hip
  • Cordeliaa moon of Uranus
  • Cordelia Carstairscharacter in Cassandra Clare's "The Last Hours"
  • Cordeliacharacter in musical "Falsettos"
  • Cordelia Bellamycharacter in the webcomic "Riverside Extras" by Miri Chamberlain