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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

UnisexOrigin: internationalIn Israel: rising fast

NealIn Hebrew: ניל · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

Neal (Hebrew: ניל) is a unisex name of international origin. 2,588 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 96 boys and ranked #180. Its peak year was 2022, with 228 babies.

People in Israel
2,588
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
96
rank #180
Peak year
2022
228 babies
USA, 2025
82
rank #1,906

Writing and saying Neal

In Hebrew letters the name is ניל, read right to left. Neal is the Latin spelling recorded in Wikidata; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms.

We have no sourced English explanation of this name yet, so we do not guess one. The Hebrew page has our Hebrew notes when there are any.

Neal by year: Israel and abroad

How many boys out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Neal: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Neal in English-speaking countries

Neal in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202582#1,9061959 (1,222)
United Kingdom20254#4,2981997 (13)
England and Wales20254#4,2091996 (24)

Counts for boys. The Hebrew page for Neal has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Neal

How do you write Neal in Hebrew?

Neal is written ניל in Hebrew. Hebrew is read right to left.

How many people in Israel are named Neal?

2,588 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name ניל: 847 women and 1,741 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Neal a boy's or a girl's name?

Both. In Israel 33% of the people named ניל are women and 67% are men, so we count it as unisex (our threshold: at least 20% of the less common sex).

Is Neal used outside Israel?

The name Neal appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 82 boys were given it in 2025 (#1,906), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 4 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.