Cordele is a city in and the county seat of Crisp County, Georgia. The population was 11,165 at the 2010 census, and 10,220 in 2020. Cordele calls itself the watermelon capital of the world. Cordele was incorporated on January 1, 1888, and named for Cordelia Hawkins, eldest daughter of Colonel Samuel Hawkins, the president of the Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway.