Cornelia - Meaning of Cornelia

What does Cornelia mean?

Pronounce
Cornelia

[ 3 syll. cor-ne-lia, co-rnel-ia ] The baby girl name Cornelia is pronounced KahR-NIYL-Yah or KahR-NIY-Liy-ah (English), KaoR-NEY-Liy-aa (Dutch), or KaoR-NEH-Liy-aa (German) †. Cornelia is of Latin origin. It is used mainly in Dutch, English, German, Italian, and Romanian. The name Cornelia means 'war horn'. It is derived from cornu which means 'horn' ; belli 'war'. The name developed as a Latin feminine version of the old Roman surname Cornelius. The name was often bestowed in honor of the Roman matron Cornelia Africana (190BC-100BC), the mother of the famed revolutionary statesmen Caius and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was regarded as the perfect example of the virtuous Roman woman. The name was first adopted by English speakers in the 19th century. Cornelia is the feminine version of the Dutch, English, and German Cornelius.

Cornelia is a widely used name; it has 45 forms that are used in English and foreign languages. English forms of the name include Carna, Carnelia, Carniella, Cornalia, Corneelija, Corneilla, Cornela, Cornelija, Cornella, Cornelle, Cornelya, Cornie, Cornilear, Cornisha, Corny, Corrianna, Kornelija, Nelie, and Nell. Other English forms include the shortenings Nelia (used in German, and Spanish as well) and Nelli (used in German as well), and the diminutives Neely (used in Dutch and as well), Nella, Nellie, Nelly, and Nila.

Forms used in foreign languages include Cornelie (French), Cornélie (French), Kornelis (Scandinavian), Kornelja (Polish), Kornélia (Hungarian), and Melia (Spanish). Specific foreign forms include the shortenings Cor (Dutch), Cora (German), Cornell (German), and Nele (German), the diminutives Cokkie (Dutch), Connie (German), Conny (German), Neel (Dutch), Neeltje (Dutch), Nel (Dutch), Nela (Czech and Spanish), and Nelleke (Dutch), and the spelling variant Kornelia (Czech, German, and Polish).

See also the related categories, romanian, virtuous (holy), english, latin, roman, mother, war (battle), italian, dutch, and german.

Cornelia is rare as a baby girl name. At the modest peak of its usage in 1902, 0.064% of baby girls were named Cornelia. It had a ranking of #225 then. The baby name has markedly dropped in popularity since then, and is currently of only sporadic use. Out of all girl names in its family, Cornelia was nevertheless the most commonly used in 2018.

Baby names that sound like Cornelia include Carmalla, Carmela, Carmele, Carmeli, Carmella, Carmiel, Carmila, Carmilla, Carnelia, Cormela, Cormelah, Cormella, Cormellah, Corneilla, Cornela, Cornelie, Cornella, Cornelya, Karmela, and Karmeli.

† Pronunciation for Cornelia: K as in "key (K.IY)" ; AH as in "mud (M.AH.D)" ; R as in "race (R.EY.S)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; L as in "lay (L.EY)" ; Y as in "you (Y.UW)" ; AO as in "ought (AO.T)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; AA as in "odd (AA.D)" ; EH as in "ebb (EH.B)"