Diminutive of Cora or Cornelia, or from Scottish Gaelic 'coire' meaning a mountain hollow.
Corrie functions as a warm, familiar diminutive of Cornelia or Corinna, both of which trace back to the Latin *cornu*, meaning 'horn' — in antiquity a symbol of strength and abundance (hence the cornucopia, the 'horn of plenty'). Cornelia was one of the most venerated names in ancient Rome: Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi brothers in the 2nd century BCE, was held up as the ideal Roman matron, a woman of fierce intelligence and Republican virtue who famously declared that her sons were her jewels. That heritage gives Corrie a classical foundation it wears lightly.
The name also draws from a completely different tradition: in Scottish Gaelic and the geography of the Scottish Highlands, a *corrie* (or cirque) is the characteristic circular hollow carved into a mountainside by glacial action — a dramatic landscape feature of breathtaking beauty. Scottish place names like Corrie on the Isle of Arran carry this geographical meaning, giving the name a rugged, elemental quality alongside its classical one. The name's most stirring modern bearer is Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983), the Dutch Christian watchmaker who, with her family, hid Jewish refugees in their home during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.
She survived the Ravensbrück concentration camp and spent the rest of her long life as a speaker and writer on forgiveness and faith. Her 1971 memoir *The Hiding Place* made her one of the 20th century's most widely read spiritual writers. Today Corrie feels refreshingly unpretentious — approachable, cheerful, and carrying far more history than its breezy two syllables suggest.