Neve
A feminine name of Hebrew origin meaning "bright" or "radiant".
Name Census estimates that about 1,541 living Americans carry the first name Neve. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Neve today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Neve births was 2010 (95 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Neve. 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 Neve with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Neve is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 222,423 Americans
Peak year
2010
95 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,357
Tracked since 1996
Census
Neve in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,348 people with the first name Neve, which placed it at #10,033 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
#10,033
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,348 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Neve
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neve is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.5%) and Two or More Races (7.9%). 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 Neve 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 Neve at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.9% · 1,050
- Hispanic or Latino9.5% · 128
- Two or more races7.9% · 106
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 40
- Black or African American1.2% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 8
Popularity
Neve: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Neve from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 679 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Neve remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Neve 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 Neve during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Neves live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. California, New York, Illinois recorded the most babies named Neve, while Texas, Ohio, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 42 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Neve
The name Neve originated from the Hebrew language, derived from the word "navah," which means "dwelling place" or "home." It gained popularity during the medieval period in Israel and surrounding regions.
Neve can be traced back to ancient Hebrew texts, including the Talmud, where it was used as a reference to the homeland or a place of residence. In the Bible, the word "navah" appears in various forms, such as "naveh" or "navith," often referring to pastures or meadows.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Neve dates back to the 12th century. Neve ben Shlomo, a renowned Jewish scholar and commentator, lived in Spain during this period and made significant contributions to the study of the Talmud.
In the 16th century, Neve Shalom, a prominent Sephardic Jewish philosopher and kabbalist, was born in Safed, Ottoman Palestine (now Israel). He was known for his work on mystical interpretations of Jewish texts.
During the 17th century, Neve Yerushalmi, a Jewish scholar and authority on Halakha (Jewish law), lived in Jerusalem and authored several notable works on Jewish jurisprudence.
In the 19th century, Neve Tzedek was the name given to one of the first Jewish neighborhoods established outside the walls of the Old City of Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv, Israel). The name Neve Tzedek means "Oasis of Justice" in Hebrew.
Another notable figure was Neve Shalom Ashkenazi, a Lithuanian-born Hebrew writer and poet who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is remembered for his contributions to modern Hebrew literature.
While the name Neve has its roots in Hebrew and Jewish culture, it has gained popularity across various communities and cultures around the world, transcending its original linguistic and religious boundaries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Neve
People
Neve + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Neve 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
Neve: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Neve?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,541 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Neve 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 222,423 US residents.
Is Neve a common name?
We classify Neve as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,557 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Neve most popular?
The single biggest year for Neve was 2010, when 95 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Neve is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Neve in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,348 people with the name Neve, or 0.45 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,033 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 Neve 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 Neve?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Neve leans strongly female. 1,316 people counted with this name were female (97.6%), compared with 32 male bearers (2.4%). 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 Neve?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Neve is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.5%) and Two or More Races (7.9%). 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 Neve most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Neve in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.9% (1,050 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 Neve in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Neve a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Neve 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 Neve still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Neve 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 Neve 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 Neve?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.