Meaning and background
The story behind Neo
Neo is recorded in the surname dictionary as a Teochew or Hokkien form of the Chinese surname Liang. This is a specific romanization history, not a general explanation of every modern given name with these letters. A dog owner may intend a different literary or personal association, and that can be stated separately. The surname evidence establishes the Chinese name relationship without turning an unrelated word resemblance into etymology.
- Origin
- Chinese surname: Teochew or Hokkien form of Liang. Source
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About Neo
Recorded as a dog’s name
Neo appears in 24 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/nioʊ/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/nioʊ/ · primary stress on syllable 1N IY1 OW0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
Gender association: NYC licence-period records. Any dog can use this name.
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.