Neko is a rare spelling. It is summarised with Nico, which shares its sound and spelling pattern.
Meaning not yet researched.
Neko: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 34 in 2025. Its best rank was #2,453 in 2021.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #2,453 in 2021; #3,424 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Neko in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#3,424 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 2021, at #2,453.
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.
Neko: US boys and girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 34 boys in 2025. Peak: #2,453 in 2021 · most boys in one year: 55 (2021).
In 2025, 34 US boys were named Neko, making it the 3,424th most common boys’ name of the year, up 620 places from #4,044 in 2024. That is 7 more than the 27 boys named Neko in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #2,453, reached in 2021. That year also had the most boys given the name: 55. For comparison, it was #3,657 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Fewer than five US girls were named Neko in 2025, so it does not appear in that year’s SSA list for girls. Its best rank for girls was #5,897, reached in 1976. The most girls given the name in a single year was 19, in 2009. For comparison, it was #9,961 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Neko in 47 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1968 with 6 babies. In all, 1,248 US babies have been given the name, 20% of them girls and 80% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 443 babies named Neko.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 337 US boys were named Neko; the busiest of those years was 2021, with 55. In 2025 that was about 1 in 50,238 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Nico (22,322 babies since 1880), Niko (15,135 babies since 1880) and Nikko (4,702 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 Neko in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 34 | #3,424 |
| 2024 | 5 | #16,991 | 27 | #4,044 |
| 2023 | 8 | #11,899 | 33 | #3,532 |
| 2022 | — | — | 38 | #3,199 |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,887 | 55 | #2,453 |
| 2020 | 6 | #14,631 | 36 | #3,184 |
| 2019 | 11 | #9,573 | 26 | #4,076 |
| 2018 | 8 | #12,181 | 26 | #4,077 |
| 2017 | 8 | #12,436 | 31 | #3,562 |
| 2016 | 13 | #8,735 | 31 | #3,583 |
| 2015 | 11 | #9,961 | 30 | #3,657 |
| 2014 | 14 | #8,375 | 33 | #3,352 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,062 | 38 | #2,984 |
| 2012 | 10 | #11,033 | 49 | #2,541 |
| 2011 | 12 | #9,568 | 28 | #3,759 |
| 2010 | 18 | #7,137 | 35 | #3,222 |
| 2009 | 19 | #6,999 | 38 | #3,088 |
| 2008 | 11 | #10,598 | 28 | #3,803 |
| 2007 | 10 | #11,408 | 35 | #3,226 |
| 2006 | 9 | #12,142 | 21 | #4,463 |
| 2005 | 5 | #18,395 | 16 | #5,206 |
| 2004 | 6 | #15,532 | 21 | #4,217 |
| 2003 | — | — | 19 | #4,381 |
| 2002 | — | — | 28 | #3,239 |
| 2001 | — | — | 16 | #4,832 |
| 2000 | — | — | 23 | #3,607 |
| 1999 | — | — | 13 | #5,242 |
| 1998 | — | — | 18 | #3,961 |
| 1997 | — | — | 13 | #4,866 |
| 1996 | — | — | 8 | #6,929 |
| 1995 | — | — | 14 | #4,440 |
| 1994 | — | — | 15 | #4,226 |
| 1993 | — | — | 14 | #4,385 |
| 1992 | — | — | 29 | #2,514 |
| 1991 | — | — | 20 | #3,193 |
| 1990 | — | — | 18 | #3,415 |
| 1989 | — | — | 13 | #4,204 |
| 1988 | — | — | 20 | #2,824 |
| 1981 | — | — | 6 | #6,014 |
| 1980 | 6 | #9,949 | — | — |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,897 | — | — |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,733 | — | — |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,329 | — | — |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,931 | — | — |
| 1970 | 6 | #7,690 | — | — |
| 1969 | — | — | 5 | #4,823 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,774 | — | — |
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).