Cordelia is a person in a play, not a kind of thing. She is the youngest of King Lear's three daughters in William Shakespeare's King Lear. Lear asks his daughters to tell him how much they love him, because he is splitting up his kingdom. The two older sisters pour out sweet words they do not mean. Cordelia loves him in a real way, but she will not make a show of it, and she will not compete with lies. Lear is angry and sends her away. The play then slowly shows that she was the honest one, and that the pretty speeches were empty. English speakers who know the play use her name as a picture of a loyal child who tells the truth even when it costs her. Some parents still use Cordelia as a girl's name, but for most people it points straight at this character. Shakespeare wrote Cordelia; older British tellings had forms like Cordeilla. The name may come from the Latin saint's name Cordula, but that last step is only a possible link, not a sure one.