Neel
Neel was given to 108 boys in 2025, #1,581 among boys’ names; 3,392 Americans have been recorded with it since 1918 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,280 Americans named Neel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 10 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Neel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Neel?
#1,581 among boys’ names, 2025
Neel rose from #1,663 in 2015 to #1,581 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 49.6 to 63.2 per million.
148 babies in 2009, the peak
Neel peaked in 2009, when 148 boys were given it, #1,216 among boys’ names. The 108 births of 2025 are 73% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 108 | #1,581 | 63.2 |
| 2024 | 87 | #1,859 | 50.5 |
| 2023 | 67 | #2,167 | 39.2 |
| 2022 | 103 | #1,673 | 59.0 |
| 2021 | 94 | #1,733 | 53.7 |
| 2020 | 83 | #1,810 | 48.1 |
| 2019 | 81 | #1,860 | 45.1 |
| 2018 | 86 | #1,789 | 47.4 |
| 2017 | 115 | #1,475 | 62.1 |
| 2016 | 98 | #1,634 | 51.6 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 95 | #1,663 | 49.6 |
| 2014 | 90 | #1,697 | 46.9 |
| 2013 | 81 | #1,788 | 42.8 |
| 2012 | 81 | #1,826 | 42.7 |
| 2011 | 97 | #1,596 | 51.1 |
| 2010 | 140 | #1,254 | 73.0 |
| 2009 | 148 | #1,216 | 74.6 |
| 2008 | 108 | #1,514 | 52.9 |
| 2007 | 122 | #1,366 | 58.8 |
| 2006 | 93 | #1,579 | 45.2 |
| 2005 | 82 | #1,655 | 41.1 |
| 2004 | 86 | #1,546 | 43.3 |
| 2003 | 82 | #1,557 | 41.5 |
| 2002 | 71 | #1,673 | 36.6 |
| 2001 | 76 | #1,579 | 39.1 |
| 2000 | 79 | #1,530 | 40.2 |
| 1999 | 63 | #1,679 | 32.8 |
| 1998 | 74 | #1,493 | 38.7 |
| 1997 | 54 | #1,782 | 28.6 |
| 1996 | 53 | #1,754 | 28.0 |
| 1995 | 34 | #2,325 | 17.9 |
| 1994 | 38 | #2,155 | 19.7 |
| 1993 | 31 | #2,432 | 15.8 |
| 1992 | 38 | #2,072 | 19.0 |
| 1991 | 42 | #1,880 | 20.8 |
| 1990 | 29 | #2,410 | 14.1 |
| 1989 | 40 | #1,879 | 20.0 |
| 1988 | 34 | #1,934 | 17.8 |
| 1987 | 29 | #2,093 | 15.5 |
| 1986 | 20 | #2,657 | 10.9 |
| 1985 | 31 | #1,903 | 16.8 |
| 1984 | 35 | #1,675 | 19.4 |
| 1983 | 32 | #1,778 | 17.9 |
| 1982 | 27 | #2,041 | 14.9 |
| 1981 | 20 | #2,469 | 11.2 |
| 1980 | 21 | #2,419 | 11.8 |
| 1979 | 15 | #2,981 | 8.7 |
| 1978 | 24 | #2,053 | 14.6 |
| 1977 | 25 | #1,985 | 15.2 |
| 1976 | 13 | #3,043 | 8.3 |
| 1975 | 15 | #2,715 | 9.6 |
| 1974 | 16 | #2,525 | 10.2 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,901 | 3.8 |
| 1970 | 5 | #5,219 | 2.7 |
| 1969 | 9 | #3,245 | 5.0 |
| 1967 | 5 | #4,368 | 2.9 |
| 1963 | 8 | #3,247 | 3.9 |
| 1956 | 9 | #2,913 | 4.3 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,105 | 2.6 |
| 1948 | 5 | #4,030 | 2.8 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,378 | 4.6 |
| 1927 | 5 | #4,617 | 4.4 |
| 1924 | 5 | #4,765 | 4.4 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,133 | 5.6 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,595 | 5.1 |
| 1918 | 8 | #3,289 | 7.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Neel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Neel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 66 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Neel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Neel, and how old are they?
3,280 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 3,392 Americans ever recorded as Neel. The median Neel alive today is 17 years old; half are between 10 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 3,673 people named Neel (82 women and girls, 3,591 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,782 born in the U.S. The Census count is 32% 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 18 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 140 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 507 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,430 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,180 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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).
Where are babies named Neel born?
The states with the most babies named Neel are California, Texas and New Jersey, with 66% of its births recorded by state in 2025; New Jersey is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 25 | #926 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 14 | #1,390 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 11 | #637 | 3.4× |
| Virginia | 6 | #1,055 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,102 | 1.0× |
| Massachusetts | 5 | #865 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,381 | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,219 | 0.3× |
Where Neel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Neel is most over-represented in New Jersey: since 1918 it was given 3.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Neel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 165,785 babies since 1880, Neel is the third most given (2.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 108 of their 478 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 Neel
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 Neel and names like it
- Compare Neel and NeilBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sNeel peaked in 2009.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Neel since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Neel.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Neel alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with NMost given first.