Meaning of the nameNei

Nei is a short masculine name that the Morfemário of the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil associates with the French Ney.

Meaning

The meaning of Nei is not known for certain. No reliable source documents it, so we give none; below are the origin of the spelling and the official figures.

People (2022): 8,331
Rank in Brazil: #1,933
Median age: 53 years
2010 Census: 11,438; people

Nei in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Nei, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1960s (2,344 people).

327 women 8,004 men

Source: IBGE, 2022 Demographic Census, Nomes no Brasil. The census counts the first name of people alive in 2022; small counts are not published, and the first group covers everyone born before 1940. How to read these data.

Where the name Nei is most common

States with the highest share of people named Nei in the population, in the 2022 Census.

All states

State	People	% of population
Rio Grande do Sul	1,938	0.018%
São Paulo	1,067	0.002%
Rio de Janeiro	1,041	0.007%
Paraná	845	0.007%
Minas Gerais	688	0.003%
Santa Catarina	547	0.007%
Bahia	534	0.004%
Pará	290	0.004%
Goiás	217	0.003%
Mato Grosso	202	0.006%
Mato Grosso do Sul	170	0.006%
Amazonas	126	0.003%
Distrito Federal	108	0.004%
Espírito Santo	78	0.002%
Maranhão	77	0.001%
Rondônia	72	0.005%
Ceará	63	0.001%
Pernambuco	42	0.001%
Rio Grande do Norte	41	0.001%
Piauí	36	0.001%
Tocantins	34	0.002%
Sergipe	24	0.001%
Acre	23	0.003%
Amapá	21	0.003%
Paraíba	17	0.000%
Roraima	17	0.003%

States with fewer than 15 people with the name are not shown: IBGE does not publish those counts.

About the name Nei

The Morfemário of the Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil (Dictionary of Names in Use in Brazil) records Nei and Ney as traditional names linked to the French Ney, with some use in Brazil, and cites Machado (1981), for whom this French name would be a variant of German neu, 'new'; this is a hypothesis, not a certain meaning. The same name element, written -nei or -ney, appears at the end of many Brazilian names, such as Valdinei, Claudiney and Rodinei, mostly male. In the 2022 Census, IBGE recorded 8,331 people named Nei, with a median age of 53; proportionally, the name is most common in Rio Grande do Sul.

It is the spelling in -ei, the same ending as Valdinei and other Brazilian names.

Other spellings of Nei

Spelling	People (2022)
Nei	8,331
Ney	7,867

Sources

Dicionário de Nomes em Uso no Brasil: Morfemário (-NEI, -NEY) · dicionariodenomesdobrasil.com.br · origin
Wiktionary: Ney · en.wiktionary.org · usage

Questions about the name Nei

What does the name Nei mean?

The meaning of Nei is not known for certain: no reliable source documents it. So we give no meaning; the page shows the origin of the spelling and the official figures.

How many people are named Nei in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 8,331 people with the first name Nei, which ranks it number 1,933 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1960s.

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

Nei is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 327 women and 8,004 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Nei?

Nei is a name of French origin. The sources are listed at the end of the page.

In which Brazilian state is Nei most common?

Proportionally, in Rio Grande do Sul: 0.018% of the state's population is named Nei (1,938 people), according to the 2022 Census.

What are the other spellings of Nei?

Ney. IBGE counts each spelling separately.

More names of French origin

See all

Spotted a mistake? Report a correction for Nei with a source. See the methodology.