Nee
surname · Latin script
Meaning: of Nia(dh)’, a byname meaning ‘Warrior’
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/neɪ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Nee is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- MYMalaysia≈1 in 11K(inferred from the name graph)
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 66K
- DEGermany≈1 in 82K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 282 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 11K (inferred from the name graph)
3,000 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
Malaysia, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Nee' in MT Malta.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
of Nia(dh)’, a byname meaning ‘Warrior’. Vars.: Naismith, Na(e)smith, Nasmyth. Vars.: O’Nee, O’Nea, O’Ney, (O’)Knee. See also Neville.
Sources 1
- The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles
Attested across 22 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Nee counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 3,000 | 1 in 111K | 3K | Nee | 282 |
| MY Malaysia | ≈2,900 est. | ≈1 in 11K | — | Nee | 34 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈1,000 est. | ≈1 in 66K | 670 | Nee | 104 |
| DE Germany | ≈970 est. | ≈1 in 82K | — | Nee | 70 |
| FR France | ≈720 est. | ≈1 in 94K | 121 | — | 2 |
| NL Netherlands | ≈340 est. | ≈1 in 51K | — | Nee | 19 |
| SG Singapore | ≈240 est. | ≈1 in 26K | — | Nee | 36 |
| IE Ireland | ≈110 est. | ≈1 in 45K | — | Nee | 39 |
| MT Malta | ≈10 est. | ≈1 in 46K | — | Nee' | 3 |
3,000 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Nee is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic 6 Niadh ‘descendant of Nia’ or 6 Niadh ‘son of Nia’. Compare McNee.
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
of Nia(dh)’, a byname meaning ‘Warrior’. Vars.: O’Nee, O’Nea, O’Ney, (O’)Knee. See also Neville.
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
In dag, the tree (vide segbe). pterocarpus Singular cl. Definition Comment neei -ra V. 1. to wake up 2. to resurrect, to come to life again 3. to wake sb. up 4. to dawn; [Bieyu neeya, Day has dawned. 5. to be clear to the senses ; neei bieyu ‘the next day’ 6. to be clear in understanding 7. to be wise 8. to make clear (transitive)
as a wordDagbani Dictionary CD
In cdo, a virtuous, accomplished woman Ella = whatever belongs to woman
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
In cdo, s we sO so sO IGIEZ to annoy, to trouble, (chaiu-iu)
as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- George H. Neeb. 1876USUnited States Army Medal of Honor recipient
- Dan M. Neeb. 1888USAmerican athlete, sports coach, lawyer, politician, and government administrator (1888–1952)
- Patrick Neeb. 1943USAmerican organized crime figure
- Michael Neeb. 1947USAmerican botanist (born 1947)
- Sylviane Néeb. 1949FRFrench politician
- Jean-Luc Neeb. 1959FRFrench politician
- Adam Neeb. 1981USAmerican actor and filmmaker
- Aaron NeeUSAmerican filmmaker
- Chris Neetelevision writer and producer
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 28 sources across 15 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 3K | #10,663 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 2.9K | #10,434 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 2.9K | #10,330 |
| GB United Kingdom | Surnames of England and Wales (taliesin-arlein.net, Sept 2002 electoral register) | 2002 | 670 | #9,045 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 179 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 168 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 163 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 156 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 145 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 129 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1911 | 123 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 121 | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Nee come from?
- of Nia(dh)’, a byname meaning ‘Warrior’. Vars.: Naismith, Na(e)smith, Nasmyth. Vars.: O’Nee, O’Nea, O’Ney, (O’)Knee. See also Neville. Recorded by The Oxford Names Companion - The definitive guide to Surnames, First Names, and Place Names of the British Isles.
- How do you pronounce Nee?
- A machine transcription gives /neɪ/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Nee mean?
- Recorded meaning: of Nia(dh)’, a byname meaning ‘Warrior’.
- In which country does Nee have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 3.0 thousand people named Nee, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled nee.
- How common is the name Nee?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,000 people named Nee in 2010, about 1 in 111 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Nee?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/neeThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Nee”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.