Cornelious
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "horn" or "noble."
Name Census estimates that about 1,265 living Americans carry the first name Cornelious. It is a predominantly male name (95.6% of registrations). The average person named Cornelious today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cornelious births was 1919 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cornelious. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Cornelious is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 113 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 270,952 Americans
Peak year
1919
50 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2021 SSA rank
#5,386
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cornelious in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 899 people with the first name Cornelious, which placed it at #13,432 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
#13,432
National first-name rank
People counted
899
899 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cornelious
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cornelious is Black at 83.5%. The next largest groups are White (11.6%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Cornelious 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 Cornelious at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.5% · 751
- White11.6% · 104
- Two or more races2.6% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Cornelious
Cornelious leans heavily male at 95.6% of total registrations, but 113 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cornelious as a male name
- Ranked #9,925 in 2021
- 7 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1921 (42 births)
Cornelious as a female name
- Ranked #5,386 in 1949
- 5 female births in 1949
- Peak: 1919 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cornelious leans strongly male. 853 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 36 female bearers (4.0%).
Popularity
Cornelious: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cornelious from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 386 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cornelious 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 Cornelious during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cornelious' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Cornelious, while West Virginia, South Carolina, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cornelious
The name Cornelious has its origins in the Latin language, specifically derived from the Roman family name Cornelius. The earliest known roots of this name can be traced back to the ancient Roman era, around the 8th century BC.
The name Cornelius is believed to be derived from the Latin word "cornu," meaning "horn." This association with horns could potentially stem from the legend of a Roman ancestor who possessed prominent horns on their head. Alternatively, it may have been a reference to the strength and resilience symbolized by horns in ancient Roman culture.
One of the earliest and most notable historical figures bearing the name Cornelius was Cornelius Sulla, a Roman dictator who lived from 138 BC to 78 BC. He played a significant role in the Roman civil wars and was known for his authoritarian rule and military reforms.
Another prominent figure was Cornelius Nepos, a Roman biographer who lived circa 99 BC to 24 BC. He is best known for his work "De Viris Illustribus" (On the Lives of Illustrious Men), which chronicled the lives of famous individuals from Greek and Roman history.
In the New Testament of the Bible, the name appears in the form of Cornelius the Centurion, a Roman officer who became one of the first Gentile converts to Christianity after receiving a vision from God. This account is recorded in the Book of Acts and marks an important milestone in the spread of Christianity beyond the Jewish community.
During the Middle Ages, the name Cornelious was relatively uncommon but still found usage among European nobility and clergy. One notable bearer was Cornelius Jansen (1585-1638), a Dutch Catholic bishop and theologian who founded the religious movement known as Jansenism.
In more recent history, Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was an American business magnate and philanthropist who amassed a vast fortune through his involvement in the shipping and railroad industries. He played a pivotal role in the development of transportation networks in the United States.
Overall, the name Cornelious has a rich historical legacy, spanning ancient Roman origins, religious significance in the Bible, and prominent figures across various eras and fields, including politics, literature, theology, and business.
People
Cornelious + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cornelious 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
Cornelious: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cornelious?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,265 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cornelious 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 270,952 US residents.
Is Cornelious a common name?
We classify Cornelious as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,588 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cornelious most popular?
The single biggest year for Cornelious was 1919, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cornelious is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cornelious in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 899 people with the name Cornelious, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,432 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 Cornelious 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 Cornelious?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cornelious leans strongly male. 853 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 36 female bearers (4.0%). 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 Cornelious?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cornelious is Black at 83.5%. The next largest groups are White (11.6%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). 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 Cornelious most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cornelious in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.5% (751 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 Cornelious in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cornelious a male name?
Yes, 95.6% of people registered as Cornelious 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 Cornelious still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cornelious 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 Cornelious 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 Americans are named Cornelious?
You can see how many Americans are named Cornelious on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.