Greek kore, "maiden", an epithet of Persephone — maiden. Introduced to English readers by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826.
Cora ranks 113th among American girls in 2025, with 2,428 born that year. Its best year was 2019, when 3,602 babies were given the name, ranking 71st. The typical living American called Cora is about 14 years old today. It is relatively most common in Rhode Island, where it accounts for 0.30% of births.
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state name files, 2025 release, and the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales. Etymology researched and written by our editors. Living-population and median-age figures are our own estimates, described in the methodology.