Cora
Meaning of Cora
Cora—pronounced KOR-uh—traces its roots to the ancient Greek word “Kore,” meaning “maiden,” the epithet used for Persephone before her descent into the underworld; the name later migrated through Latin texts, where its echo of “cor,” heart, lent it an affectionate resonance in Romance-language cultures from Bogotá to Barcelona. First fashionable in the United States during the Gilded Age, Cora slipped quietly down the charts mid-century, only to stage an unmistakable comeback after 2010, bolstered by literary nods, the trans-Atlantic appeal of Downton Abbey’s Countess Cora, and parents’ renewed taste for crisp, vintage monosyllables. Today it sits just outside the national top 100—an upward climb reflected in more than 2,500 newborn registrations last year—offering a succinct, international alternative to longer classics like Cordelia or Cornelia while still carrying the mythic weight of springtime and rebirth.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as KAWR-uh (/'kɔːrə/)
American English
- Pronunced as KOR-uh (/'kɔrə/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Cora
| Cora Sternberg - Cora N. Sternberg is an American oncologist and Weill Cornell professor who specializes in genitourinary cancers, leads the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian, and is among the most cited scientists worldwide. |
| Brianna Coda is an American wrestler best known as Cora Jade in WWE who also competes as Elayna Black on the independent circuit and has appeared for TNA. |
| Cora Staunton is an Irish multi sport star, a decorated Mayo ladies Gaelic footballer who later excelled as an AFLW goalkicker with GWS and also works as a HSE liaison. |
| Cora Bissett is a Scottish theatre director, playwright, actor, and musician known for creating shows like Roadkill and Glasgow Girls, acting in Rab C. Nesbitt and High Times, and serving as an associate director at the National Theatre of Scotland. |
| Cora Lenore Williams was a writer and educator who pioneered small group instruction for children and founded the A-Zed School and the Institute for Creative Development, which later became Williams College, in Berkeley, California. |
| Cora Belle Brewster was an American physician and gynecological surgeon who cofounded two medical journals with her sister Flora and worked as a medical writer and editor. |
| Cora Mae Bryant, an American blues musician and daughter of Curley Weaver, released two solo albums on the Music Maker label. |
| Cora Lily Woodard Aycock was First Lady of North Carolina from 1901 to 1905, a political hostess, farmer, and railway executive who hosted at the Executive Mansion, supported public school reforms, and was the first to give birth there. |
| Cora Sherlock is an Irish writer and blogger, an anti-abortion campaigner and deputy chair of the Pro Life Campaign, named to the BBC 100 Women in 2014. |
| Cora Millet-Robinet was a French agricultural innovator and silk producer who authored the widely read farming, household management and cookery guide The French Country Housewife. |
| Cora Ratto de Sadosky - Argentine mathematician and educator Corina Cora Eloisa Ratto de Sadosky championed human and women's rights, led the anti fascist Junta de la Victoria, founded the journal Columna 10, and wrote influential math textbooks. |
| Cora Berliner, a German economist and social scientist, pioneered social work and was murdered by the Nazi regime. |
| Cora Thomasina Walker was an American lawyer and one of the first Black women to practice law in New York. |
| Cora Kelley Ward was a Louisiana-born artist and photographer who studied at Tulane and Hunter College and became known for Abstract Expressionism and her meticulous documentation of the New York art scene from the 1950s to the 1980s. |
| Cora Wilson Stewart was a Progressive Era educator and reformer who tackled adult illiteracy by creating Moonlight Schools and in 1911 became the first woman president of the Kentucky Education Association. |
