Nea
Nea was given to 16 girls in 2025, #7,048 among girls’ names; 417 Americans have been recorded with it since 1932 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nea by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nea mean?
Wiktionary, Finnish section
Nea is “a female given name of modern usage”
Short form of Linnea.
/ˈneɑ/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Finnish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nea?
#7,048 among girls’ names, 2025
Nea rose from #9,954 in 2015 to #7,048 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 6.2 to 10.0 per million.
16 babies in 2007, the peak
Nea peaked in 2007, when 16 girls were given it, #7,993 among girls’ names. The 16 births of 2025 are 100% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 16 | #7,048 | 10.0 |
| 2024 | 12 | #8,800 | 7.4 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,657 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 8 | #11,925 | 4.9 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,880 | 4.9 |
| 2020 | 7 | #13,088 | 4.3 |
| 2019 | 9 | #11,119 | 5.4 |
| 2018 | 12 | #9,003 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 10 | #10,498 | 5.8 |
| 2016 | 12 | #9,265 | 6.8 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 11 | #9,954 | 6.2 |
| 2014 | 7 | #14,152 | 3.9 |
| 2013 | 14 | #8,447 | 8.0 |
| 2012 | 8 | #13,101 | 4.5 |
| 2011 | 10 | #10,955 | 5.7 |
| 2010 | 10 | #11,014 | 5.6 |
| 2009 | 11 | #10,462 | 6.0 |
| 2008 | 16 | #8,005 | 8.5 |
| 2007 | 16 | #7,993 | 8.3 |
| 2006 | 8 | #13,266 | 4.2 |
| 2005 | 7 | #14,076 | 3.8 |
| 2004 | 15 | #7,714 | 8.2 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,877 | 7.7 |
| 2002 | 9 | #10,831 | 5.0 |
| 2001 | 13 | #8,057 | 7.2 |
| 2000 | 8 | #11,484 | 4.4 |
| 1999 | 6 | #13,914 | 3.4 |
| 1998 | 5 | #15,862 | 2.8 |
| 1997 | 6 | #13,239 | 3.4 |
| 1996 | 8 | #10,247 | 4.6 |
| 1995 | 7 | #11,376 | 4.0 |
| 1994 | 5 | #15,027 | 2.8 |
| 1991 | 9 | #9,113 | 4.8 |
| 1990 | 7 | #11,008 | 3.7 |
| 1989 | 8 | #9,367 | 4.3 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,802 | 3.5 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,243 | 4.1 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,953 | 3.6 |
| 1982 | 5 | #11,705 | 3.0 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,660 | 6.0 |
| 1980 | 12 | #5,789 | 7.2 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,691 | 5.9 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,924 | 5.5 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,323 | 3.4 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,925 | 3.9 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,900 | 4.7 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nea a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nea has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Nea: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nea, and how old are they?
An estimated 406 Americans named Nea and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 11 and 31. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 479 people named Nea (450 women and girls, 29 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 353 born in the U.S. The Census count is 36% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 12,596 babies since 1880, Nea is the fifth most given (3.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 16 of their 70 babies (23%), the second most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Nea
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Nea and names like it
- Compare Nea and NenaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNea peaked in 2007.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nea since 1910.
- Finnish namesWiktionary’s origin for Nea: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2007The year the most babies were named Nea.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Nea alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.