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Summary
- No one named Cordelia appears in the Bible, and the name has no Hebrew meaning.
- It comes from Cordeilla, the loyal youngest daughter of King Leir in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, written about 1136.
- Spenser and Shakespeare spelled it Cordelia; Shakespeare’s King Lear (1606) made the name famous.
- Its meaning is uncertain. It is often linked to the Latin cor, “heart,” or to the Welsh name Creiddylad; “jewel of the sea” is not supported by name references.
- Cordelia’s line “It is thy business that I go about” echoes the boy Jesus in Luke 2:49.
- Cordelia ranked 204th among American girls’ names in 1880 and 980th in 2025.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Behind the Name, “Cordelia” and “Creiddylad,” with United States popularity figures from Social Security Administration data. https://www.behindthename.com/name/cordelia
- “Cordelia,” Wikipedia, on the origin of the given name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordelia
- “Cordelia of Britain,” Wikipedia, on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account and the identification with Creiddylad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordelia_of_Britain
- “Cordelia (King Lear),” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordelia_(King_Lear)
- William Shakespeare, King Lear, 1.1 and 4.4, Folger Shakespeare Library edition. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/king-lear/
- Robert W. Reeder, “‘Have I Caught Thee?’: Cordelia and the Runaway Jesus,” Early Modern Literary Studies 15.1 (2009–10), quoting R. A. Foakes’s Arden edition of King Lear. https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/15-1/reedcord.htm
- Scripture quotation: Luke 2:49, Geneva Bible (1599). Reference: Luke 2:41–51.
