Cornelius
About Cornelius
Cornelius, the New Testament name of a third century Pope and saint, is one of those venerable Latin names on the edge of consideration, despite the corny nickname alert.
Cornelius has some magical vibe via Cornelius Agrippa, a medieval alchemist who appears in scores of books, including Frankenstein and Harry Potter. In Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, Cornelius was one of the two magicians who help Faustus strike his bargain with the devil. Two characters of the name appear in Shakespeare's plays—Hamlet and Cymbeline. The most famous bearer of the name is probably railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who gave the appellation an aristocratic air. Cornelius is also the birth name of Chevy Chase.
Cornelius was consistently in the top 1000 through 2008; it was a Top 300 name through 1932.
And if you're put off by the short form Corny, you could consider Neely, the nickname of the young Cornelius in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
Pronounced kor-NEEL-yus.
As of October 2026, Cornelius ranked #1908 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #130 in 1882, Nameberry popularity #537.
Editor's take: The name Cornelius is a boy's name of Latin origin meaning "horn".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #1,208 | 152 | 79.1 |
| 2015 | #1,200 | 154 | 80.3 |
| 2016 | #1,236 | 151 | 79.6 |
| 2017 | #1,545 | 106 | 57.3 |
| 2018 | #1,706 | 92 | 50.7 |
| 2019 | #1,565 | 107 | 59.6 |
| 2020 | #1,513 | 111 | 64.3 |
| 2021 | #1,816 | 86 | 49.2 |
| 2022 | #1,761 | 94 | 53.8 |
| 2023 | #1,898 | 83 | 48.5 |
| 2024 | #2,150 | 68 | 39.5 |
| 2025 | #1,908 | 82 | 48 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Cornelius.
- Horatio
- Constantine
- Bartholomew
- Ulysses
- Cecil
- Hector
- Percival
- Thaddaeus
- Barnabas
- Leopold
- Balthazar
- Virgil
- Augustine
- Mortimer
- Cyril
- Ignatius
- Vladimir
- Albus
- Pascal
- Fabian
Cornelius on lists
Famous Corneliuss
- Saint Cornelius the Centurion
first Gentile to convert to Christianity
- Saint Cornelius
Archbishop of Armagh
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
American industrialist
- Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase
American actor/comedian
- Cornelius Harvey McGillicuddy I
IV aka Connie Mack, American baseball players and politicians
- Cornelius Nepos
ancient Roman biographer
- Cornelius Castoriadis
Greek,French philosopher
- Cornelius Ingram
American football player
- Cornelius Coward
English cricketer
- Cornelius Packard "Dusty" Rhoads
American pathologist and oncologist
- Cornelius "Neil" Casey
Irish,American footballer
- Christopher Cornelius "Kit" Culkin
American actor and father of Macaulay Culkin
- Cornelius Elven (1797
1873), hymnist
- Anton Cornelius "Neels" Visser
instagram star
Cornelius in pop culture
- Yukon Cornelius
character in animated special "Rudolph, the Red,Nosed Reindeer"
- Cornelius "Cory" Matthews
main character on TV's "Boy Meets World"
- Cornelius Hickey
character in book and TV series "The Terror"
- Kornelius "Kojo" Jonesworth
character on TV's Zeke and Luther"
- Cornelius Fudge
former Minister of Magic from "Harry Potter" series
- Cornelius
the fairy prince in the 1994 animated film "Thumbelina"
- Publius Cornelius Dolabella
character in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra"
- Cornelius "Neeley" Nolan
character in Betty Smith's novel "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"
- Cornelius
the narrator in Chuck Palahniuk's novel "Fight Club"
- Cornelius
character in the Planet of the Apes film series
- Cornelius
an old elephant counsellor, from the Babar the Elephant series
- Cornelius Coot
character in the Scrooge McDuck universe
- Cornelius Fillmore
character in the animated series Fillmore!
- Gibby Cornelius Gibson
character on TV's iCarly
- Cornelius Hackl
character in The Matchmaker and musical Hello, Dolly!
- Lewis "Cornelius" Robinson
character in Disney's "Meet the Robinsons"
- Cornelius Stirk
character in DC Comics
- Cornelius Austerlin
the stepdad in Lene Kaaberbøl's Katriona series