Meaning of the nameNey

Ney is a spelling of the name Nei.

Meaning

The meaning of Ney 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): 7,867
Rank in Brazil: #2,003
Median age: 50 years
2010 Census: 8,287; people

Ney in the 2022 Census

People with the first name Ney, by the decade they were born. In the chart, 70 = the 1970s and 20+ = 2020 to 2022. The largest group was born in the 1970s (1,897 people).

226 women 7,641 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 Ney is most common

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

All states

State	People	% of population
Rio de Janeiro	1,122	0.007%
São Paulo	1,031	0.002%
Minas Gerais	805	0.004%
Paraná	587	0.005%
Pará	583	0.007%
Bahia	504	0.004%
Rio Grande do Sul	465	0.004%
Amazonas	430	0.011%
Goiás	315	0.005%
Maranhão	281	0.004%
Santa Catarina	244	0.003%
Mato Grosso	183	0.005%
Ceará	178	0.002%
Mato Grosso do Sul	165	0.006%
Distrito Federal	162	0.006%
Rio Grande do Norte	125	0.004%
Pernambuco	99	0.001%
Espírito Santo	97	0.003%
Piauí	87	0.003%
Rondônia	72	0.005%
Paraíba	64	0.002%
Acre	55	0.007%
Amapá	54	0.007%
Tocantins	48	0.003%
Sergipe	47	0.002%
Roraima	38	0.006%
Alagoas	26	0.001%

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

The spelling Ney

A spelling with a final Y, recorded by Wiktionary as a masculine name in Portuguese; proportionally, it appears most in Amazonas.

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.

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 Ney

What does the name Ney mean?

The meaning of Ney 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 Ney in Brazil?

IBGE's 2022 Census recorded 7,867 people with the first name Ney, which ranks it number 2,003 among the country's names. The largest group was born in the 1970s.

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

Ney is a male name: in the 2022 Census, 226 women and 7,641 men had this name.

What is the origin of the name Ney?

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

In which Brazilian state is Ney most common?

Proportionally, in Amazonas: 0.011% of the state's population is named Ney (430 people), according to the 2022 Census.

What are the other spellings of Ney?

Nei. IBGE counts each spelling separately.

More names of French origin

See all

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