Cord
Of Old English origin, designating a dweller by the cord or boundary.
Name Census estimates that about 1,743 living Americans carry the first name Cord. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Cord today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cord births was 1990 (100 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cord. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 196,646 Americans
Peak year
1990
100 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,080
Tracked since 1920
Census
Cord in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,581 people with the first name Cord, which placed it at #8,983 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,983
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,581 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cord
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cord is White at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Black (6.8%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Cord described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Cord at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.4% · 1,318
- Black or African American6.8% · 107
- Two or more races4.5% · 71
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 55
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 24
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 6
Popularity
Cord: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cord from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 504 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cord by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Cord during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cords live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Texas, California, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Cord, while Utah, Ohio, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cord
The name Cord originates from the Old English and Old German words "cord" or "kord," which mean "rope" or "string." It was likely initially used as a surname for someone who worked with ropes or cords, like a rope-maker or sailor.
In the Middle Ages, the name Cord was particularly popular in Germany and the Low Countries. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name is Saint Cord (c. 1180-1248), a Franciscan friar and missionary who was active in Germany and the Netherlands. He is known for his efforts to convert pagans and his miracles attributed to him.
Another notable historical figure with this name was Cord Kluit (1684-1766), a Dutch jurist and historian who wrote extensively on the history of the Netherlands. He is considered one of the founders of modern historical criticism and methodology.
In the 16th century, Cord Siemens (c. 1500-1570) was a German Anabaptist leader and theologian who played a significant role in the Radical Reformation movement. He was known for his pacifist and non-resistant beliefs.
During the Renaissance, Cord Lubbers (c. 1500-1556) was a Dutch humanist scholar and poet who wrote in Latin and Greek. He was a professor at the University of Louvain and is remembered for his contributions to classical literature and education.
In the 19th century, Cord Titz (1822-1895) was a German painter and illustrator known for his landscape paintings and illustrations of fairy tales and legends. He was part of the Düsseldorf School of Painting and his works are held in various museums in Germany.
While the name Cord has been primarily used in German-speaking regions and the Low Countries historically, it has also been adopted in other parts of Europe and beyond. However, it remains a relatively uncommon first name in most parts of the world today.
People
Cord + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cord as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cord: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cord?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,743 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cord going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 196,646 US residents.
Is Cord a common name?
We classify Cord as "Rare". It ranks above 93.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,821 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cord most popular?
The single biggest year for Cord was 1990, when 100 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cord is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cord in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,581 people with the name Cord, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,983 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Cord in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Cord?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cord leans strongly male. 1,561 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 18 female bearers (1.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Cord?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cord is White at 83.4%. The next largest groups are Black (6.8%) and Two or More Races (4.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Cord most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cord in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.4% (1,318 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Cord in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cord a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cord in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Cord still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cord in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Cord can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Cord?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.