# Neat (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/neat/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from Middle English.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 540 |
| US rank (2010) | 40,494 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 571,751 people |
| Change since 2000 | +7.4% (503 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

English metonymic occupational surname for a herdsman or a nickname for someone thought to resemble an ox or a cow, from Middle English neat (“ox, cow”), from Old English neat.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Neat in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 79% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 16% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 2.2% |

## Similar surnames

Neto, Nett, Netto, Natt, Nead, Nath, Neth, Nieto, Nadeau, Nutt, Noto, Nott.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.