I can imagine that it must be rough to have to go through grade school with a name like Korney… However, Amy Korney Hotz decided to do a bit of searching and find out the origins of the name. It turns out it was a derivative of Conner/ Carney. Amy writes a column about it in the January 8 edition of Star News Online. Following is a teaser.
I grew up hearing that a census taker or insurance salesman (take your pick) came to the house one day and told my grandfather, “That’s how the Irish spell it.”
I had a hard time swallowing that from the outset because my grandfather was not the kind of man to just roll over and believe anything a stranger told him.
The other story goes that granddaddy and several of his brothers worked at the same mill here in Wilmington and the accountants kept getting their paychecks mixed up. To help the poor fellow out, one brother kept his name “Carney,” another began spelling it “Corney” and granddaddy, bless his heart, drew the name “Korney.” Even today I have relatives who spell it all three ways.