Neala
Neala was given to 8 girls in 2025, #11,626 among girls’ names; 595 Americans have been recorded with it since 1938 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Neala by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Neala?
#11,626 among girls’ names, 2025
Neala fell from #4,278 in 2015 to #11,626 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 19.0 to 5.0 per million.
38 babies in 2009, the peak
Neala peaked in 2009, when 38 girls were given it, #4,078 among girls’ names. The 8 births of 2025 are 21% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 8 | #11,626 | 5.0 |
| 2024 | 9 | #10,855 | 5.6 |
| 2023 | 6 | #14,658 | 3.7 |
| 2022 | 10 | #10,190 | 6.1 |
| 2021 | 10 | #10,097 | 6.1 |
| 2020 | 10 | #10,062 | 6.2 |
| 2019 | 10 | #10,263 | 6.0 |
| 2018 | 15 | #7,652 | 8.8 |
| 2017 | 20 | #6,218 | 11.6 |
| 2016 | 19 | #6,600 | 10.7 |
Every recorded year (49)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 34 | #4,278 | 19.0 |
| 2014 | 28 | #4,990 | 15.7 |
| 2013 | 30 | #4,724 | 17.1 |
| 2012 | 26 | #5,365 | 14.8 |
| 2011 | 29 | #4,880 | 16.5 |
| 2010 | 18 | #7,133 | 10.1 |
| 2009 | 38 | #4,078 | 20.7 |
| 2008 | 27 | #5,393 | 14.3 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,409 | 7.8 |
| 2006 | 25 | #5,502 | 13.1 |
| 2005 | 19 | #6,466 | 10.3 |
| 2004 | 12 | #9,111 | 6.5 |
| 2003 | 7 | #13,424 | 3.8 |
| 2001 | 7 | #13,066 | 3.9 |
| 1990 | 6 | #12,417 | 3.2 |
| 1989 | 6 | #11,858 | 3.3 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,954 | 3.6 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,692 | 5.9 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,353 | 3.4 |
| 1973 | 9 | #5,895 | 6.2 |
| 1971 | 5 | #9,188 | 3.0 |
| 1966 | 7 | #5,640 | 4.1 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,646 | 4.0 |
| 1962 | 6 | #6,347 | 3.1 |
| 1959 | 11 | #3,969 | 5.4 |
| 1957 | 5 | #6,762 | 2.4 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,717 | 4.0 |
| 1955 | 5 | #6,453 | 2.6 |
| 1954 | 7 | #5,009 | 3.6 |
| 1953 | 5 | #6,281 | 2.7 |
| 1952 | 8 | #4,375 | 4.3 |
| 1949 | 7 | #4,539 | 4.1 |
| 1947 | 10 | #3,627 | 5.6 |
| 1946 | 5 | #5,480 | 3.2 |
| 1945 | 5 | #5,045 | 3.8 |
| 1944 | 5 | #5,059 | 3.8 |
| 1942 | 6 | #4,490 | 4.4 |
| 1940 | 5 | #4,846 | 4.4 |
| 1938 | 5 | #4,806 | 4.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Neala a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Neala has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 49 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Neala: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Neala, and how old are they?
An estimated 556 Americans named Neala and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 11 and 23. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 586 people named Neala (580 women and girls, 6 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 517 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 25,623 babies since 1880, Neala is the eighth most given (2.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 8 of their 413 babies (1.9%), again the eighth most given.
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 Neala
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 Neala and names like it
- Compare Neala and NellyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNeala peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Neala since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Neala.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Neala alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.