# Neal (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/neal/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Irish |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /niːl/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Neals |
| US babies named this | 55,305 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 55,048 / 257 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 231, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1937 | 5 | 4,743 |
| 1945 | 7 | 3,918 |
| 1947 | 5 | 5,881 |
| 1948 | 5 | 5,794 |
| 1950 | 5 | 5,875 |
| 1951 | 7 | 4,695 |
| 1955 | 9 | 4,289 |
| 1963 | 5 | 7,320 |
| 1965 | 7 | 5,646 |
| 1967 | 6 | 6,558 |
| 1974 | 7 | 7,424 |
| 1976 | 5 | 10,354 |
| 1979 | 6 | 9,794 |
| 1983 | 5 | 11,426 |
| 1986 | 5 | 12,203 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 97 | 1,595 |
| 2012 | 105 | 1,530 |
| 2013 | 99 | 1,575 |
| 2014 | 120 | 1,410 |
| 2015 | 152 | 1,213 |
| 2016 | 152 | 1,231 |
| 2017 | 132 | 1,356 |
| 2018 | 102 | 1,615 |
| 2019 | 118 | 1,470 |
| 2020 | 104 | 1,572 |
| 2021 | 110 | 1,582 |
| 2022 | 110 | 1,604 |
| 2023 | 95 | 1,741 |
| 2024 | 77 | 2,006 |
| 2025 | 82 | 1,914 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 8 | 2,400 |
| 2011 | 8 | 2,390 |
| 2012 | 7 | 2,721 |
| 2013 | 10 | 2,055 |
| 2014 | 8 | 2,459 |
| 2015 | 9 | 2,319 |
| 2016 | 4 | 4,023 |
| 2017 | 6 | 3,040 |
| 2018 | 7 | 2,693 |
| 2019 | 4 | 3,937 |
| 2020 | 5 | 3,334 |
| 2021 | 4 | 3,990 |
| 2022 | 7 | 2,755 |
| 2023 | 4 | 4,107 |
| 2025 | 4 | 4,275 |

## People named Neal

- Neal McDonough, American actor
- Neal Stephenson, American science fiction writer (born 1959)
- Neal Maupay, French footballer (born 1996)
- Neal Cassady, American writer (1926–1968)
- Neal Schon, American guitarist
- Neal Skupski, British tennis player
- Neal H. Moritz, American film producer
- Neal Hefti, American jazz trumpeter, composer, songwriter, and arranger (1922-2008)
- Neal Morse, American rock musician
- Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube since 2023
- Neal E. Miller, American psychologist and academic (1909-2002)
- Neal Adams, American comic book and commercial artist (1941–2022)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.