Neah
Feminine · “new”
Nea is Greek for new — the feminine of neos, the word inside neon, neolithic and neophyte. Neon was named in 1898 because the discoverers' young son suggested the Greek for new when they found a gas nobody had seen before.
How old is the name Neah?
Neah first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Neah alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 500 people named Neah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Neah most popular?
Neah peaked in 2006, reaching #4685 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 7,247 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From nea to Neah
The story of Neah
Neos has furnished English with a great deal: neolithic is the new stone age, a neophyte is a new plant and then a new convert, neologism is a new word, and neon is a gas that had never been seen. The naming of neon is documented in an unusually charming way — the chemist who isolated it in 1898 recorded that his twelve-year-old son suggested calling it novum, and he preferred the Greek. There is also a place: Neah Bay in Washington state is the westernmost point of the lower forty-eight, the home of the Makah Nation, and near it is Ozette, a village buried by a mudslide around 1700 whose wooden objects survived because the mud sealed them.
Meaningscholars disagree
new
Greek nea, new, is the likeliest source, and Nea is used as a woman's name in Greece and Scandinavia. Neah may also be a respelling of Nia or Nea with a decorative h. Neither has been shown for the American entries, and the h is silent in any case.
How the name formed
- nea
- Neah
Related forms: Nea · Nea
Pronouncing Neah
NEE-uh
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the h silent. NAY-uh, with the vowel of day, is used in Scandinavian families and follows the Greek more closely.
Nicknames for Neah
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1980
- Most girls named
- 200630 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4685reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −41.7%7 in 2025, from 12
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Neah in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nea in Greek — related form
- Nea in Swedish — related form
Neahs among us
people named Neah are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Neah
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Neah
- #11932
- Neah on the 2025 chart
- #937
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Neah went to 7 girls in 2025, but Nea is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 23, which makes it the 937th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,995 places above the chart.
- Nea16
- Neah7
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Neah itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Damarys test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Neah's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Damarys climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Damarys's path sketches the road Neah is walking now.
Neah sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Neah beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Neah in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables, with nothing to explain.
- One of its possible sources is an ordinary Greek word with several English descendants.
- It is a real name in Greece and Sweden rather than only an American formation.
- Nea without the h is the standard European spelling.
- The vowel is said two ways and the spelling settles neither.
- It is close enough to Nia, Mia and Lea to be misheard as any of them.
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Neah
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Neahs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Neah are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Neah?
- Neah is one of 2 recorded spellings. Nea is the more common one — 16 births in 2025 against 7 for Neah.
- How popular is the name Neah in 2025?
- Neah ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Neah?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Neah — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Neah with classmates?
- Neah will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Neah
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Neah? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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