Neal
A diminutive form of the English name Nigel, derived from the Irish Niall meaning "champion".
Name Census estimates that about 37,277 living Americans carry the first name Neal. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Neal today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Neal births was 1959 (1,223 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Neal. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Neal with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Neal is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 257 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Neal have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
37K
~ 1 in 9,195 Americans
Peak year
1959
1,223 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,002
Tracked since 1880
Census
Neal in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 37,395 people with the first name Neal, which placed it at #1,106 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,106
National first-name rank
People counted
37K
37,395 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
12.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Neal
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neal is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.9%) and Black (5.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Neal described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Neal at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.2% · 31,131
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.9% · 2,190
- Black or African American5.5% · 2,072
- Two or more races2.7% · 1,017
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 784
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 201
Gender
Gender distribution for Neal
Out of the 55,217 babies given the name Neal since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Neal as a male name
- Ranked #2,002 in 2024
- 77 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1959 (1,223 births)
Neal as a female name
- Ranked #12,202 in 1986
- 5 female births in 1986
- Peak: 1912 (12 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Neal appears almost entirely male. Of the 37,392 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Neal: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Neal from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 10,754 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Neal by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Neal during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Neals live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Neal, while Alaska, Vermont, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 986 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Neal
The name Neal is an English given name derived from the Old English words "ne" meaning "near" and "hillan" meaning "hill". It was originally a surname referring to someone who lived near a hill or an elevated location.
In the 12th century, the name appeared in the form "Nealle" in the Domesday Book, which was a manuscript record of the great survey of England commissioned by King William the Conqueror in 1086. This suggests that the name was in use among the Anglo-Saxons before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.
The earliest recorded use of Neal as a first name dates back to the late 13th century. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Neal of Radcliffe, a 14th-century English landowner and knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War between England and France.
In the 16th century, the name gained popularity among Irish families, particularly in County Mayo. The Irish form of the name, "Niall" or "Niallgus", is derived from the Gaelic words "nia" meaning "champion" and "gus" meaning "vigor" or "strength".
Over the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Neal. These include Neal Cassidy (1926-1968), an American writer and famous figure in the Beat Generation literary movement; Neal Morse (born 1960), an American progressive rock musician; Neal Stephenson (born 1959), an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction; Neal Shusterman (born 1962), an American writer of children's and young adult literature; and Neal Peart (1952-2020), the acclaimed Canadian drummer and lyricist for the rock band Rush.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Neal
People
Neal + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Neal as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Neal: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Neal?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 37,277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Neal going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 9,195 US residents.
Is Neal a common name?
We classify Neal as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 55,217 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Neal most popular?
The single biggest year for Neal was 1959, when 1,223 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Neal is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Neal in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 37,395 people with the name Neal, or 12.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,106 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Neal in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Neal?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Neal appears almost entirely male. Of the 37,392 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Neal?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neal is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (5.9%) and Black (5.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Neal most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Neal in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.2% (31,131 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Neal in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Neal a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Neal in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Neal still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Neal in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Neal can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Neal?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.