Neel
A Sanskrit name meaning blue or dark blue in color.
Name Census estimates that about 3,190 living Americans carry the first name Neel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Neel today is around 21 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Neel births was 2009 (148 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Neel. 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 Neel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 107,447 Americans
Peak year
2009
148 babies that year
Average age
21
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,854
Tracked since 1918
Census
Neel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,671 people with the first name Neel, which placed it at #4,880 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
#4,880
National first-name rank
People counted
3.7K
3,671 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
84.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Neel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 84.2%. The next largest groups are White (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Neel 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 Neel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander84.2% · 3,090
- White6.9% · 255
- Two or more races6.1% · 225
- Black or African American1.4% · 51
- Hispanic or Latino1.0% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 14
Popularity
Neel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Neel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 964 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Neel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Neel 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 Neel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Neels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Neel, while Minnesota, Ohio, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 108 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Neel
The name Neel has its origins in Sanskrit, an ancient language of the Indian subcontinent. It dates back to around the 5th century BCE and is derived from the Sanskrit word "nila," which means "blue" or "dark blue." The name is closely associated with the Hindu religion and culture.
Neel is a name that has been mentioned in several ancient Hindu texts, such as the Puranas and the Mahabharata. In the Mahabharata, one of the major Sanskrit epics, Neel is the name of a character who is a warrior and a skilled archer. This text, which dates back to around the 8th century BCE, is one of the earliest recorded instances of the name.
One of the earliest recorded examples of a historical figure with the name Neel is Neel Kanth, a 9th-century Indian philosopher and scholar. He was known for his contributions to the field of logic and is considered one of the most influential thinkers of his time.
Another notable figure with the name Neel is Neel Kamal, a 16th-century Indian poet and writer. He was born in 1508 in the city of Agra and is renowned for his works in Hindi and Brajbhasha, a literary language derived from Sanskrit.
In the 18th century, Neel Ratan Haldar was a prominent Indian writer and playwright. He was born in 1688 and is best known for his works in the Bengali language, including plays and poetry.
Neel Darpan, born in 1824, was a 19th-century Indian social reformer and writer. He is remembered for his efforts to abolish the practice of indentured labor and for his advocacy of education and women's rights.
Neel Adhikari, who lived from 1904 to 1988, was a 20th-century Indian freedom fighter and political activist. He played a significant role in the Indian independence movement and was a prominent figure in the Communist Party of India.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Neel, which has a rich heritage and deep-rooted cultural significance in the Indian subcontinent.
People
Neel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Neel 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
Neel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Neel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,190 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Neel 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 107,447 US residents.
Is Neel a common name?
We classify Neel as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,284 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Neel most popular?
The single biggest year for Neel was 2009, when 148 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Neel is about 21 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Neel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,671 people with the name Neel, or 1.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,880 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 Neel 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 Neel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Neel leans strongly male. 3,591 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 82 female bearers (2.2%). 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 Neel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 84.2%. The next largest groups are White (6.9%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Neel most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Neel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.2% (3,090 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 Neel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Neel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Neel 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 Neel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Neel 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 Neel 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 common is the name Neel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.