Neave
A feminine given name of Old English origin meaning "bright" or "radiant".
Name Census estimates that about 172 living Americans carry the first name Neave. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Neave today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Neave births was 2017 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Neave. 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 Neave with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
172
~ 1 in 1,992,758 Americans
Peak year
2017
16 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#16,928
Tracked since 2003
Census
Neave in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 179 people with the first name Neave, which placed it at #41,133 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
#41,133
National first-name rank
People counted
179
179 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Neave
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neave is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Neave 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 Neave at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.2% · 149
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 13
- Black or African American5.0% · 9
- Two or more races4.5% · 8
Popularity
Neave: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Neave from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 92 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Neave 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 Neave during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Neaves live
Origin
Meaning and history of Neave
The name Neave originated from the Old English word "ne?fa," which translates to "nephew" or "kinsman." This name's roots can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It was initially used as a surname to identify someone's relationship to their uncle or aunt.
During the Middle Ages, the name Neave was primarily found in regions of England, particularly in the northern counties. It was not until the late medieval period that it began to transition from a surname to a given name, albeit still relatively rare.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Neave was Sir Neave Fitz-Randolph, a 14th-century English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. Another notable figure was Neave Butler, a 16th-century English landowner and member of the gentry from Hertfordshire.
In the 17th century, Neave gained some popularity among Puritan families in England, who often chose names with biblical meanings or connotations. It was during this period that the name began to spread beyond its northern English roots.
A famous bearer of the name Neave was Aileen Neave, a British politician and member of the Conservative Party who served as a Member of Parliament from 1959 to 1979. Tragically, she was assassinated by the Irish National Liberation Army in 1979 at the age of 63.
Another well-known figure was Sir Michael Neave, a British Army officer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament and was a close advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was born in 1923 and died in a car bombing in 1979, carried out by the Irish National Liberation Army.
In the arts, Neave Brownlow-Dixon was a 20th-century English actress and writer, known for her performances in theater and television productions. She was born in 1919 and lived until 2005.
Despite its historical roots, the name Neave has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, with only a handful of notable individuals bearing it over the centuries.
People
Neave + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Neave 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
Neave: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Neave?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 172 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Neave 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 1,992,758 US residents.
Is Neave a common name?
We classify Neave as "Very Rare". It ranks above 72.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 174 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Neave most popular?
The single biggest year for Neave was 2017, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Neave is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Neave in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 179 people with the name Neave, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #41,133 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 Neave 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 Neave?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Neave leans strongly female. 174 people counted with this name were female (92.6%), compared with 14 male bearers (7.4%). 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 Neave?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neave is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.3%) and Black (5.0%). 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 Neave most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Neave in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.2% (149 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 Neave in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Neave a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Neave in the SSA data are female. 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 Neave still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Neave 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 Neave 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 Americans are named Neave?
See how many people share the name Neave on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.