English: metonymic occupational name for a herdsman in charge of
cattle or a nickname for someone thought to resemble an ox or a cow,
from Middle English neat ‘ox’, ‘cow’ (Old English
neat). The modern English adjective neat (via French
from Latin nitidus ‘clean’, ‘shining’) does not occur before
the 16th century, after the main period of surname formation.
Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
30,893
Historical Documents & Family Trees with Neat
The information for this chart came from the U.S. Immigration Collection at Ancestry.co.uk.
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