Neala
Feminine · “Irish Niall”
Irish naming did not traditionally make female forms of male names. Neala, Shauna and Erina are American inventions, built by attaching a Latin ending to an Irish name that never had one.
How old is the name Neala?
Neala first appears in US birth records in 1938 — 87 years ago. The typical Neala alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Neala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Neala most popular?
Neala peaked in 1947, reaching #3448 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 7,469 places below that high. See the whole 1947 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Niall to Neala
The story of Neala
Irish female naming was independent: Grainne, Deirdre, Aoife, Sadhbh, Niamh, Orlaith and Fionnuala are names in their own right, not versions of men's names, and the tradition had no equivalent of the Latin habit of adding -a. When Irish names became fashionable in twentieth-century America the two systems collided. Parents who wanted a female Sean or a female Niall could not find one, so they made them the way English makes them, with a borrowed Romance ending: Shauna, Seana, Neala, Erina, Patricia. Those names are perfectly real and entirely American, and Irish speakers meeting them recognize the root and not the formation, which is worth knowing before calling any of them traditional.
Meaningscholars disagree
Irish Niall, of disputed meaning
Neala is an American feminine formation on Neal or Niall, whose own meaning is unsettled; champion and cloud have both been proposed. Irish has its own large stock of female names and did not generally derive them from male ones. The peak is 1947.
How the name formed
- Niall
- Neal
- Neala
Related forms: Nealla · Niall
Pronouncing Neala
NEE-luh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some say nee-AH-luh with three; both readings occur.
Nicknames for Neala
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
- 1938
- Most girls named
- 200938 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3448reached in 1947
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%8 in 2025, from 9
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.
Neala in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nealla in English — spelling variant
- Niall in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Nealas among us
people named Neala are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Neala
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ruba test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Neala's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ruba climbed just as high around 1919, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ruba's path sketches the road Neala is walking now.
Neala 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
Neala beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Neala in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables and five letters, spelled as heard.
- The Irish root is genuine and well known.
- It is very rare in every decade.
- It is an American formation rather than an Irish name.
- Two pronunciations are in use.
- The 1947 peak dates it closely.
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What they receive
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Neala
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nealas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Neala are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Neala in 2025?
- Neala ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Neala?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Neala — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Neala with classmates?
- Neala will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Neala
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Neala? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Neala and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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