Neo
Neo was given to 204 boys in 2025, #1,066 among boys’ names; 3,123 Americans have been recorded with it since 1990 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,090 Americans named Neo and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 years old and half are between 4 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Neo by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Neo mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Neo is “a unisex given name originating as a coinage.” Its etymology gives the sense “new” (neo-).
Recent coinage from the prefix neo- (“new”). Popularized by a character in the science-fiction film The Matrix (1999), where it is explained as an anagram of “(the) One”.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Neo?
#1,066 among boys’ names, 2025
Neo rose from #1,840 in 2015 to #1,066 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.04 to 0.12 per 1,000.
240 babies in 2022, the peak
Neo peaked in 2022, when 240 boys were given it, #949 among boys’ names. The 204 births of 2025 are 85% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 204 | #1,066 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 236 | #964 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 226 | #975 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 240 | #949 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 227 | #980 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 180 | #1,101 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 124 | #1,417 | 0.07 |
| 2018 | 145 | #1,274 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 84 | #1,807 | 0.05 |
| 2016 | 100 | #1,617 | 0.05 |
Every recorded year (28)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 81 | #1,840 | 0.04 |
| 2014 | 93 | #1,663 | 0.05 |
| 2013 | 60 | #2,192 | 0.03 |
| 2012 | 69 | #2,025 | 0.04 |
| 2011 | 78 | #1,831 | 0.04 |
| 2010 | 62 | #2,164 | 0.03 |
| 2009 | 78 | #1,870 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 64 | #2,137 | 0.03 |
| 2007 | 69 | #2,028 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 103 | #1,486 | 0.05 |
| 2005 | 80 | #1,684 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 108 | #1,350 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 84 | #1,532 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 66 | #1,757 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 111 | #1,211 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 116 | #1,183 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 24 | #3,335 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 5 | #9,076 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Neo a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Neo has been given almost only to boys: 6 girls in 28 years of records.
Girls and boys named Neo: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Neo, and how old are they?
3,090 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,123 Americans ever recorded as Neo. The median Neo alive today is 8 years old; half are between 4 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 1,935 people named Neo (86 women and girls, 1,849 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,832 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,100 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,990 |
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 Neo born?
The states with the most babies named Neo are California, Florida and New York, with 51% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 37 | #728 | 1.7× |
| Florida | 22 | #720 | 1.1× |
| New York | 18 | #790 | 1.0× |
| Texas | 17 | #1,243 | 1.0× |
| Illinois | 8 | #991 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #986 | 0.3× |
| New Jersey | 7 | #880 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,110 | 0.2× |
| Maryland | 6 | #780 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,420 | 0.3× |
Where Neo is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Neo is most over-represented in California: since 1990 it was given 1.7 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 Neo 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 3,257 babies since 1880, Neo is the most given (96% of them). In 2025 it was given to 204 of their 204 babies (100%), again the 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 Neo
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 Neo and names like it
- Compare Neo and NenoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sNeo peaked in 2022.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Neo since 1910.
- Coined namesWiktionary’s origin for Neo: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Neo.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Neo alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with NMost given first.