Cornell
A masculine given name of English origin meaning "attractive ravine".
Name Census estimates that about 8,854 living Americans carry the first name Cornell. It is a predominantly male name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Cornell today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cornell births was 1962 (247 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cornell. 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 Cornell is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 348 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
8.9K
~ 1 in 38,712 Americans
Peak year
1962
247 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,438
Tracked since 1890
Gender
Gender distribution for Cornell
Cornell leans heavily male at 97.0% of total registrations, but 348 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cornell as a male name
- Ranked #4,438 in 2024
- 23 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1962 (241 births)
Cornell as a female name
- Ranked #8,680 in 1973
- 5 female births in 1973
- Peak: 1952 (14 births)
Popularity
Cornell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cornell from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 2,074 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cornell 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 Cornell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cornells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Illinois, Louisiana, California recorded the most babies named Cornell, while Nebraska, Kentucky, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 260 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cornell
The given name Cornell is derived from the Middle English surname "Cornewaile" or "Cornwayle", which referred to someone from the county of Cornwall in the southwest of England. The name itself can be traced back to the Old English words "corn" meaning "grain" and "walh" meaning "stranger" or "foreigner". This likely referred to the people of Celtic descent who inhabited the region and may have spoken a language distinct from the Anglo-Saxons.
The name Cornell first started appearing in historical records in the 13th and 14th centuries, often in reference to people who hailed from Cornwall. One of the earliest recorded examples is a mention of a Reginald de Cornewaile in the Pipe Rolls of 1202, which were financial records kept by the English Crown.
In terms of notable historical figures with the given name Cornell, one of the most prominent was Cornell Jacobsen (1592-1669), a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his still life works featuring fruits, flowers, and tableware. Another was Cornell Musselman (1767-1830), an early American settler and farmer who established the town of Musselman, West Virginia.
A more recent figure was Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968), an American novelist and short story writer who was a prolific author of crime fiction and noir stories. His works were frequently adapted for film and television, and he is widely regarded as a pioneer of the noir genre.
In the field of academia, Cornell Rhodes (1914-2005) was a notable American physicist who made significant contributions to the development of radar technology during World War II and later worked on the Manhattan Project.
Finally, Cornell Gunter (1938-2011) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter who co-wrote several hit songs for artists like The Coasters and The Platters in the 1950s and 1960s.
While the name Cornell has its origins in England and may have been associated with people from Cornwall, it has since been adopted and used by individuals across various cultures and backgrounds throughout history.
People
Cornell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cornell 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
Cornell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cornell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,854 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cornell 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 38,712 US residents.
Is Cornell a common name?
We classify Cornell as "Rare". It ranks above 97.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,681 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cornell most popular?
The single biggest year for Cornell was 1962, when 247 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cornell is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Cornell a male name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Cornell 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.
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.