Cory
- Pronunciation
- [Co-ry]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Hill: Hollow.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Cory
Cory is an English name most commonly interpreted as a topographical surname-turned-given-name, carrying the meanings "hill" or "hollow" — evocative of the English and Irish landscape tradition of naming families after the features of their land. The name belongs to the cluster of short, two-syllable masculine names that surged in the second half of the twentieth century as American parents increasingly turned to informal, accessible surnames and place-name forms for their sons.
Cory first appeared in the US Social Security top-1000 in 1975 and rose quickly through the late-1970s and 1980s, reaching its peak rank of #59 in 1988. That decade-long climb reflected the broader American taste for crisp, youthful-sounding names that were neither old-fashioned nor obviously trendy. The name held on in the top-1000 for over four decades in total, last appearing in 2021 at #991 with 221 births — a sign of gradual rather than abrupt retirement. Across its tracked presence, Cory accumulated 93,846 top-1000 births, marking it as a genuinely popular name within its generation.
The name's appeal rests on its clean, one-breath sound and its easy spelling. Its principal recorded variant is Corey, an alternate spelling that shared the same cultural moment and followed a parallel trajectory. Both forms belong unmistakably to the late-twentieth-century American naming landscape, and parents today choosing Cory give their child a name that feels quietly retro without being heavy or formal.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Cory
US Popularity History (1975–2021)
Annual US births named Cory by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1989 with 6,450 boys named Cory (boy rank #61 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2021, ranked #991 for boys (221 US births). That's 930 places below its 1989 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Cory Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Cory the strongest states are Kentucky, Oklahoma, Missouri.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky | #475 | 25 |
| 2 | Oklahoma | #614 | 25 |
| 3 | Missouri | #615 | 26 |
| 4 | Maryland | #646 | 44 |
| 5 | Utah | #646 | 23 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | #648 | 20 |
| 7 | Indiana | #669 | 46 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #680 | 17 |
| 9 | Alabama | #699 | 17 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #723 | 54 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #979 | 116 |
| 2 | Georgia | #961 | 43 |
| 3 | California | #940 | 96 |
| 4 | Florida | #927 | 88 |
| 5 | New York | #912 | 88 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #891 | 31 |
| 7 | Illinois | #881 | 41 |
| 8 | Washington | #855 | 25 |
| 9 | Ohio | #832 | 73 |
| 10 | Arizona | #780 | 20 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Cory in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corey | Seething Pool | Male | Scottish |
Looking for names like Cory?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Cory to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Cory against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).