Kornelia
Latin at root, from the Roman clan Cornelius and the word cornu, "horn". It rings familiar in Poland and still lands on birth certificates today, sitting comfortably inside the top 200 for girls.
Kornelia Pronunciation
Kornelia is pronounced kor-NEL-yah (/kɔrˈnɛlja/).
What Kornelia means
Where Kornelia comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Kornelia comes from Latin, from Cornelius, the name of one of ancient Rome's great clans. Its root is cornu, the Latin word for horn, which is why the short meaning fixed to the name is horn, or in Polish róg. The older Latin spelling survives in the variant Cornelia.
Rome remembers a Cornelia already. Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, was praised for calling her sons her jewels, and her name stood for a certain Roman dignity. The masculine form is Kornel, and it reached Polish letters through Kornel Makuszyński, who wrote the adventures of Koziołek Matołek for generations of children.
Poland began recording Kornelia around 1770, and the name settled in with a softer everyday shape, the diminutive Nela. Its imieniny falls on 31 March. Read a school register that week and a Kornelia may well be sitting a few rows from a Nela, both names tracing back to one Latin horn, cornu.
How many people are named Kornelia
1 in 428 women in Poland is named Kornelia. 52,638 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #183 among female names.
Kornelia's popularity over time
1,595 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #50 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2000.
Where Kornelia is most popular
Kornelia is most popular in Łódź, 30% above the national average (1,037 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Kuyavian-Pomeranian (+24%) and Lublin (+24%). It is least common in Opole and Silesian, 69% and 33% below average respectively.
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Łódź1,037 girls born+30%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian856 girls born+24%
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Lublin802 girls born+24%
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Podlaskie510 girls born+23%
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Świętokrzyskie407 girls born+17%
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Subcarpathian830 girls born+9%
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Masovian2,391 girls born+7%
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Lesser Poland1,504 girls born+5%
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Pomeranian970 girls born+5%
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Warmian-Masurian438 girls born−3%
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Greater Poland1,312 girls born−3%
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Lubusz288 girls born−8%
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West Pomeranian446 girls born−16%
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Lower Silesian764 girls born−23%
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Silesian954 girls born−33%
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Opole89 girls born−69%
Kornelia as a middle name
Kornelia is a first name for 52,638 women in Poland and a middle name for another 9,850, an 84/16 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 111th, between Eliza (10,077) and Honorata (9,820).
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109
10,085Jagoda
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110
10,077Eliza
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1119,850Kornelia
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112
9,820Honorata
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113
9,660Sara
When Kornelia celebrates name day
Kornelia appears 1 time in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 31 March.