Cora

The name Cora comes from the Greek "Kore," which means "maiden." It could also theoretically be used as a nickname or short form for any name that has "Cor" in it, but really most of those don't need short forms anyway. Cora was a quite popular name in the latter part of the 1800's and the early 1900's. It dropped steadily in popularity through the rest of the 1900's, hitting a low point in the 1990's. It never actually dropped out of the top 1000 names for baby girls, and has been climbing in popularity somewhat in the past few years, making it back into the top 500, barely. The popularity of the name in the early 1900's probably made it seem old-fashioned for the rest of the century, but apparently that effect is wearing off, which accounts for its being used more once again. Whether or not it will regain its old popularity remains to be seen. I have nothing to really back this up except my own experience with people I've met, but it seems like "Cora" gets used reasonbly often in conjunction with other names, i.e., "Cora Beth," which is just as often a single compound name, "Corabeth." I've only known one person who was just plain "Cora."