From Greek 'korinna,' diminutive of 'kore' meaning maiden; borne by an ancient Greek lyric poetess.
Corinna traces its roots to the ancient Greek 'Korinna,' a diminutive form of 'kore,' meaning maiden or girl — the same root that gives us Persephone's epithet as the Kore of the underworld and the maiden goddess of spring. The name belonged to one of antiquity's most intriguing literary figures: Corinna of Tanagra, the Boeotian lyric poetess who was said to have defeated the great Pindar not once but five times in poetic competition. Ancient critics disputed whether this was genius or a matter of local judges preferring their hometown heroine, but the legend of a woman besting the master of odes endured.
Roman poets seized on the name for its musical, feminine cadence. Ovid's 'Amores' is addressed throughout to a mysterious 'Corinna,' a pseudonym for his beloved whose real identity scholars have debated for two millennia. This gave the name a permanent association with romantic poetry and the idealized beloved of verse.
Robert Herrick later echoed Ovid with his exquisite 'Corinna's going a-Maying,' cementing the name's connection to pastoral beauty, youth, and fleeting pleasure. Corinna remained a fixture of cultivated European naming through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, appearing in operas and novels as shorthand for a woman of grace and intelligence. Today it sits in a pleasant rarity — recognizable but genuinely uncommon, with a sound that feels both classical and surprisingly modern. Its Italian and German variants, 'Corina' and 'Korina,' enjoy modest but steady use across Europe, and the name rewards those who discover it with an exceptionally rich literary history.