Cornelius
Masculine name of Latin origin meaning "of the horn".
Name Census estimates that about 21,420 living Americans carry the first name Cornelius. It is a predominantly male name (98.3% of registrations). The average person named Cornelius today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cornelius births was 1974 (498 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cornelius. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Cornelius with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Cornelius is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 642 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
21K
~ 1 in 16,002 Americans
Peak year
1974
498 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,150
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cornelius in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,599 people with the first name Cornelius, which placed it at #1,728 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
#1,728
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
17,599 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
67.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cornelius
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cornelius is Black at 67.1%. The next largest groups are White (25.9%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Cornelius 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 Cornelius at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American67.1% · 11,802
- White25.9% · 4,558
- Two or more races3.2% · 565
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 326
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 182
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 166
Gender
Gender distribution for Cornelius
Cornelius leans heavily male at 98.3% of total registrations, but 642 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cornelius as a male name
- Ranked #2,150 in 2024
- 68 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1974 (486 births)
Cornelius as a female name
- Ranked #13,423 in 1990
- 5 female births in 1990
- Peak: 1923 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cornelius appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,595 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Cornelius: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cornelius from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 4,153 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cornelius 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 Cornelius during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cornelius' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 40 states and territories. New York, Illinois, Florida recorded the most babies named Cornelius, while Utah, Delaware, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 736 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cornelius
The name Cornelius has its origins in the Roman family name Cornelius, which derived from the Latin word cornu, meaning "horn". It was a prominent patrician family in ancient Rome, with members playing influential roles throughout Roman history.
The name first gained prominence with Lucius Cornelius Sulla, a Roman dictator who lived from 138 BC to 78 BC. He was a powerful military leader and played a significant role in the Roman civil wars of the 1st century BC.
Another notable figure with the name Cornelius was Cornelius Nepos, a Roman biographer who lived from around 100 BC to 24 BC. He is best known for his work "De Viris Illustribus" (On Illustrious Men), which contained biographies of famous Greek and Roman figures.
In the New Testament of the Bible, Cornelius is mentioned as a Roman centurion who was the first Gentile convert to Christianity, as described in the Acts of the Apostles. This event marked a significant turning point in the early Christian church, as it opened the door for non-Jews to embrace the faith.
During the Middle Ages, the name Cornelius was popular among Christian families, particularly in Western Europe. One notable bearer of the name was Cornelius Jansen, a Dutch theologian and bishop who lived from 1585 to 1638. He was the founder of the theological movement known as Jansenism, which had a significant influence on Catholic thought.
In the 17th century, Cornelius Vermuyden was a Dutch engineer and land drainage pioneer who played a crucial role in the draining of the Great Level of the Fens in eastern England. He lived from 1590 to 1677 and his work transformed vast areas of marshland into arable farmland.
Other notable individuals named Cornelius include Cornelius Evertsen the Elder, a 17th-century Dutch naval officer and admiral who fought against the English and Swedish fleets during the Anglo-Dutch Wars, and Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived from around 56 AD to 120 AD and is known for his detailed chronicles of the Roman Empire.
People
Cornelius + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cornelius 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
Cornelius: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cornelius?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,420 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cornelius 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 16,002 US residents.
Is Cornelius a common name?
We classify Cornelius as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 36,966 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cornelius most popular?
The single biggest year for Cornelius was 1974, when 498 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cornelius is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cornelius in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,599 people with the name Cornelius, or 5.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,728 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 Cornelius 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 Cornelius?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cornelius appears almost entirely male. Of the 17,595 people counted with this name, 99.1% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Cornelius?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cornelius is Black at 67.1%. The next largest groups are White (25.9%) and Two or More Races (3.2%). 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 Cornelius most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cornelius in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.1% (11,802 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 Cornelius in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cornelius a male name?
Yes, 98.3% of people registered as Cornelius 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 Cornelius still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cornelius 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 Cornelius 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 share the name Cornelius?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.