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Many who perceive themselves to be of the Cornish nation also consider themselves to be descended from the Brythons, or Cornovii (Cornish), of the post-Roman period. For this reason they consider there to be a kinship connection with the Welsh and Breton peoples and more distantly with the Scots, Manx and Irish. After the Anglo-Saxon conquest of southern, eastern and central Great Britain, Brythonic speakers were gradually pushed further into the fringes, eventually cutting them off into three groups - the Southwestern Britons (from whence the Cornish), the West Britons (the Welsh) and the Northern Britons .

This sense of a shared past is given voice in such organisations as the Celtic League and Celtic Congress, both of whom recognise Cornwall and the Cornish as a Celtic nation.

Today, many family and given names from Cornwall are clearly rooted in the Cornish language.

Y chromosome analysis of samples from the British Isles, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Friesland, and the Basque Country have shown that Cornish men's Y chromosomes are generally more similar to those of the assumed indigenous population (Welsh/Irish/Basque) than are those of men from other parts of England or Scotland. The Y chromosomes from Cornwall, however, were more Germanic (Danish/German/Frisian) than those from Wales, Ireland or the Basque Country. It should be noted that samples from all parts of the British Isles show an indigenous component.

In 2005 professor Sir Walter Bodmer was appointed to lead a £2.3 million project (roughly 4.5 million USD) by the Wellcome Trust at Oxford University to examine the genetic makeup of the United Kingdom. The findings, published on Channel 4's "Faces of Britain" in April 2007 show that the Cornish people have a particular variant of the MC1R gene which makes them a true Celtic race that are genetically closely related to the Welsh, Irish and Bretons rather than to their English neighbours.

The Cornish national identity is given voice also in the existence of various political and pressure groups. These organisations usually call for greater home rule for Cornwall, recognition of Cornwall as a Duchy and various other human rights issues. See Cornish nationalism and Constitutional status of Cornwall.

In parliamentary politics, Cornwall is a Liberal Democrat stronghold. As of the 2005 General Election, all five members of parliament returned to Westminster are Liberal Democrats. The largest Cornish nationalist party, Mebyon Kernow (Cornish Party), fielded candidates in four of the five constituencies and received around 3,500 votes, less than two percent of constituencies' electorate. The Liberal Democrats in the county, however, have campaigned for Cornish language issues, Cornish national minority issues and for the establishment of a devolved Cornish Assembly and Cornish development agency.

The Cornish branch of the Green Party of England and Wales also campaigns on a manifesto of devolution to Cornwall and Cornish minority issues. In the 2005 general election the Green Party struck a partnership deal with Mebyon Kernow.

Today, in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and other countries, some of the descendants of these original migrants celebrate their Cornish ancestry and remain proud of the Cornish family names they carry. This is evidenced by the existence of both Cornish societies and Cornish festivals in these countries, as well as a growing overseas interest in the Cornish language.