Can somebody please clarify some history on the girls name [name]Cora[/name] for me? I’m a little bit baffled as to how it can be both an “alternate” name for [name]Persephone[/name], and also invented in the last 150 years for the novel “The Last of the Mohicans”? Is this like a [name]Rhys[/name] to [name]Rhett[/name] in Gone With the Wind thing? What is the original name/word root that inspired [name]Cora[/name]?
Thanks for your help. 
I know the name [name]Kore[/name] is another name for [name]Persephone[/name], and I guess [name]Cora[/name] is similar to that. I don’t know the history of the name though.
I have also heard that [name]Cora[/name] was made up for the novel Last of the Mohicans. I have no proof of this, just what somebody told me. I was very skeptical at the time, and I still have no idea if it’s true. Good question!
As far as I know, [name]Cooper[/name] did craft [name]Cora[/name] for Last of the Mohicans, and it’s not an alternate name for [name]Persephone[/name]. Like mara_lyn86 said, that would be [name]Kore[/name]. [name]Cooper[/name] might have been inspired by [name]Kore[/name], although it’s not pronounced the same, or he may have just adapted [name]Cora[/name] from another [name]Cor[/name]- name. [name]Cora[/name]'s father, [name]Colonel[/name] [name]Munro[/name], is sometimes called The Scotsman, so I think [name]Cooper[/name] might have gone looking for a “Scottish name” and been inspired by [name]Corra[/name] Castle, the [name]Corra[/name] [name]Lin[/name] waterfall, or a number of places sharing the name, but that’s conjecture on my part.
I believe that Korë, “maiden”, was the influence that inspired that name [name]Cora[/name]. There are other thoughts that say [name]Corinna[/name] was also that inspiration for [name]Cora[/name]; however, [name]Corinna[/name] is also derived from Korë.
An alternate name for the goddess [name]Persephone[/name] is [name]Kore[/name]. [name]Kore[/name] is what she is generally called as the goddess of the spring, while [name]Persephone[/name] is what she is generally called as the goddess of the underworld. However, this is a transliteration of the Greek name Κό”η.
The first letter, Kappa, is the equivalent of the English K. When it was transliterated into Latin, they ascribed to it the letter C. It retained its pronunciation (although in many names, like [name]Kynthia[/name], it has been mangled such that it is pronounced like the Greek letter Sigma, or S).
The last letter, Eta, is more difficult to translate. In Ancient Greek it was pronounced like something between EE and AY. When it was short, it tended to sound something like the e in bed. So, Κό”η would have been pronounced like Kor-eh (and I am horrible at giving phonetic pronunciations, but imagine it ending with a sound like the e in bed). In Modern Greek, the Eta is pronounced like an Iota, or like an EE sound. So, in Modern Greek, Κό”η would be pronounced like Kor-ee.
When the Romans transliterated the names of the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses, they sometimes changed the spellings to fit their alphabet. [name]Athene[/name], for example, was spelled [name]Athena[/name]. The a sound at the end of the name was different than the e sound in Ancient Greek, yet more similar to the original pronunciation than is the Modern Greek pronunciation.
So, [name]Kore[/name] became [name]Cora[/name].
Thanks for the responses! They were very interesting and helpful.
I also found an explanation by Appellation Mountain, which I will share here:
http://appellationmountain.net/2010/11/17/baby-name-of-the-day-cora/