Meaning not yet researched.
Neel: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 108 in 2025. Its best rank was #1,216 in 2009.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #1,216 in 2009; #1,581 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Neel in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#1,581 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 2009, at #1,216.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Neel: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 108 boys in 2025. Peak: #1,216 in 2009 · most boys in one year: 148 (2009).
In 2025, 108 US boys were named Neel, making it the 1,581st most common boys’ name of the year, up 278 places from #1,859 in 2024. That is 21 more than the 87 boys named Neel in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #1,216, reached in 2009. That year also had the most boys given the name: 148. For comparison, it was #1,663 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Neel in 66 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1918 with 8 babies. In all, 3,392 US babies have been given the name, all of them boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 964 babies named Neel.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 922 US boys were named Neel; the busiest of those years was 2017, with 115. In 2025 that was about 1 in 15,816 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Neel ranked highest in New Jersey in 2025, at #637 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Neil (105,254 babies since 1880), Neal (55,305 babies since 1880), Nigel (12,371 babies since 1880) and Nell (27,710 babies since 1880).
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Neel in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 43 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 11 | #637 | #822 |
| Massachusetts | 5 | #865 | — |
| California | 25 | #926 | #1,040 |
| Virginia | 6 | #1,055 | #1,096 |
| Washington | 5 | #1,102 | — |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,219 | — |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,381 | — |
| Texas | 14 | #1,390 | #2,056 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 108 | #1,581 |
| 2024 | — | — | 87 | #1,859 |
| 2023 | — | — | 67 | #2,168 |
| 2022 | — | — | 103 | #1,673 |
| 2021 | — | — | 94 | #1,733 |
| 2020 | — | — | 83 | #1,810 |
| 2019 | — | — | 81 | #1,860 |
| 2018 | — | — | 86 | #1,789 |
| 2017 | — | — | 115 | #1,475 |
| 2016 | — | — | 98 | #1,634 |
| 2015 | — | — | 95 | #1,663 |
| 2014 | — | — | 90 | #1,697 |
| 2013 | — | — | 81 | #1,789 |
| 2012 | — | — | 81 | #1,827 |
| 2011 | — | — | 97 | #1,596 |
| 2010 | — | — | 140 | #1,254 |
| 2009 | — | — | 148 | #1,216 |
| 2008 | — | — | 108 | #1,514 |
| 2007 | — | — | 122 | #1,366 |
| 2006 | — | — | 93 | #1,579 |
| 2005 | — | — | 82 | #1,657 |
| 2004 | — | — | 86 | #1,549 |
| 2003 | — | — | 82 | #1,560 |
| 2002 | — | — | 71 | #1,676 |
| 2001 | — | — | 76 | #1,583 |
| 2000 | — | — | 79 | #1,534 |
| 1999 | — | — | 63 | #1,682 |
| 1998 | — | — | 74 | #1,496 |
| 1997 | — | — | 54 | #1,785 |
| 1996 | — | — | 53 | #1,757 |
| 1995 | — | — | 34 | #2,330 |
| 1994 | — | — | 38 | #2,160 |
| 1993 | — | — | 31 | #2,438 |
| 1992 | — | — | 38 | #2,077 |
| 1991 | — | — | 42 | #1,886 |
| 1990 | — | — | 29 | #2,415 |
| 1989 | — | — | 40 | #1,884 |
| 1988 | — | — | 34 | #1,939 |
| 1987 | — | — | 29 | #2,097 |
| 1986 | — | — | 20 | #2,660 |
| 1985 | — | — | 31 | #1,904 |
| 1984 | — | — | 35 | #1,676 |
| 1983 | — | — | 32 | #1,779 |
| 1982 | — | — | 27 | #2,042 |
| 1981 | — | — | 20 | #2,470 |
| 1980 | — | — | 21 | #2,420 |
| 1979 | — | — | 15 | #2,982 |
| 1978 | — | — | 24 | #2,053 |
| 1977 | — | — | 25 | #1,985 |
| 1976 | — | — | 13 | #3,044 |
| 1975 | — | — | 15 | #2,717 |
| 1974 | — | — | 16 | #2,527 |
| 1973 | — | — | 6 | #4,903 |
| 1970 | — | — | 5 | #5,221 |
| 1969 | — | — | 9 | #3,246 |
| 1967 | — | — | 5 | #4,369 |
| 1963 | — | — | 8 | #3,248 |
| 1956 | — | — | 9 | #2,914 |
| 1952 | — | — | 5 | #4,107 |
| 1948 | — | — | 5 | #4,032 |
| 1930 | — | — | 5 | #4,380 |
| 1927 | — | — | 5 | #4,619 |
| 1924 | — | — | 5 | #4,767 |
| 1920 | — | — | 6 | #4,135 |
| 1919 | — | — | 5 | #4,597 |
| 1918 | — | — | 8 | #3,290 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).