Neil
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For people named Neil, see Neil (name). For other uses, see Neil (disambiguation).
Neil is a given name of Gaelic origin. The name is a perfection of 'Niall', perhaps derived from the vocative form, 'Nèill'. It comes into French and Norman-Latin as Nigell -us, originally pronounced almost identically. The name, like many Gaelic names, was borrowed into Norse, where it became Njál. The original Gaelic meaning of Neil is unclear, but Champion or Cloud are the most popular meanings assigned to it.
The unrelated Indian name 'Neel' (blue) has overlapping variants 'Neal' and 'Neil'. 'Neel' comes from the Sanskrit word Nilakantha (pronounced as neela-kanta), which refers to the hue (sky blue color) of the Hindu deity Shiva's neck as he drinks poison.
[edit] Variants
Anglicised variants include:
- Neal
- Neale
- Neall
- Neill
- Nellus
- Niel
- Neel
- Nil
- Nigel
- Kneale
[edit] See also
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This page or section lists people with the surname Neil. If an internal link for a specific person referred you to this page, you may wish to add the given name(s) to that link. |
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This page or section lists people with the given name Neil. If an internal link for a specific person referred you to this page, you may wish to add the surname to that link. |
