Neville
Masculine · “new town”
Neville is given to both — 2,343 boys and 75 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Neville and Newton are the same name in two languages. Norman French neuve ville and Old English niwe tun both mean the new settlement, and England ended up with a Norman baronial family carrying one and a village-derived surname carrying the other, meaning exactly the same thing.
How old is the name Neville?
Neville first appears in US birth records in 1905 — 120 years ago. The typical Neville alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 1,500 people named Neville are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Neville most popular?
Neville peaked in 1909, reaching #951 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 5,495 places below that high. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From neuve ville to Neville
The story of Neville
The Nevilles came to England after the Conquest and became one of the great northern baronial houses, producing Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker of the Wars of the Roses, and eventually a queen. The surname spread widely, was adopted as a given name in nineteenth-century Britain along with a batch of other aristocratic surnames, and traveled to the Caribbean and to America, where it became particularly established in Jamaican and Black British naming. Its best year in United States records is 1909, and it is far more familiar in Britain and the Caribbean than in the United States today.
Meaning
new town, new settlement
From Norman French neuve ville, new town, the name of more than one place in Normandy. The English equivalent, from Old English niwe and tun, gives Newton, Newtown and Naunton. The two are translations of each other, and both are among the commonest place names in their respective countries, because a new settlement is the most obvious thing to call a new settlement.
How the name formed
- neuve ville
- de Neville
- Neville
Related forms: Neuville · Newton · Nevil
Pronouncing Neville
NEV-il
Two syllables with the stress on the first and the second reduced to almost nothing. The French Neuville is three syllables and sounds quite different.
Nicknames for Neville
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
- 1905
- Most boys named
- 197542 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #951reached in 1909
- Change vs 2022
- +18.2%13 in 2025, from 11
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.
Neville in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Neuville in French — related form
- Newton in English — related form
- Nevil in English — spelling variant
Nevilles among us
people named Neville are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Neville
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Neville 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
Neville beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Neville in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Norman surname carried by one of the great English baronial houses.
- Nev is a short, warm and thoroughly established everyday form.
- Far more familiar in Britain and the Caribbean than its American rarity suggests.
- In the United States it is unfamiliar and will need repeating.
- A very well known character in a children's book series shares the name.
- It reads as an early-twentieth-century name in American ears.
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Neville
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nevilles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Neville are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Neville in 2025?
- Neville ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Neville?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Neville — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Neville with classmates?
- Neville will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Neville
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Neville? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Neville and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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