Neola
Feminine · “new”
Neon was named by a twelve-year-old. When two chemists isolated the gas in 1898 they asked the son of one of them what to call it; he suggested the Greek word for new, and the father wrote it down. The same Greek word opens this name, and it opens a great many others in English that mean something has just arrived.
How old is the name Neola?
Neola first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Neola alive today was born around 1923, making them about 102 years old. About 200 people named Neola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Neola most popular?
Neola peaked in 1905, reaching #926 nationally. See the whole 1905 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Greek word meaning new to Neola
The story of Neola
The chemists had already found argon and krypton and were working through what was left in liquefied air. The story of the naming is well attested: the boy suggested novum, the Latin, and his father preferred the Greek, and neon it was. What nobody expected was the advertising. The gas glows red when a current passes through it, a French engineer made a tube of it into a sign in 1910, and within twenty years the word had stopped meaning a rare gas and started meaning the light of a city at night.
Meaningscholars disagree
new, most likely
The front is almost certainly the Greek element meaning new, which English uses in neolithic, neophyte and neologism; the ending is one of the Latin-looking endings that American families attached to anything. A place-name origin is also possible, since there are towns called Neola in Iowa and Utah, both of which take the name from the same Greek word. The compound as a whole has no documented meaning.
How the name formed
- a Greek word meaning new
- a gas isolated and named in 1898
- the word becomes a byword for city lighting
- American families use the element in names
- Neola appears in the record in the 1880s
Related forms: Neoma · Neola
Pronouncing Neola
nee-OH-luh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. Some families front it, NEE-oh-luh, which the spelling permits equally well.
Nicknames for Neola
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
- 1888
- Most girls named
- 191840 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #926reached in 1905
- Change vs 2016
- 0.0%5 in 2021, from 5
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.
Neola in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Neoma in English — related form
- Neola in Greek — same name
Neolas among us
people named Neola are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Neola sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is soft, unusual and read correctly at sight once the stress is settled.
- Ola and Neo are both available and pull in opposite directions.
- The Greek element behind it is one everybody already knows from other words.
- It will be heard as Viola, Leola and Neoma by people meeting it once.
- The origin is likely rather than documented.
- It belongs to the oldest layer of the American record.
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Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Neolas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Neola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Neola in 2025?
- Neola is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Neola with classmates?
- Neola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
Nancy#965 · Nicole#382 · Natalie#89 · Norma#2002 · Nora#20 · Naomi#47 · Nellie#533 · Nina#324
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Neola? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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