Thursday, January 18, 2007

Neil!

Neil is a forename of Gaelic - that is, Irish or Scottish - origin. The name is a corruption of 'Niall', perhaps derived from the vocative form, 'Nèill'. The name comes into French and Norman-Latin as Nigell -us, originally pronounced almost identically. The name, like many Gaelic names, is borrowed into Norse as Njál.

The unrelated Indian name 'Neel' (blue) has overlapping variants 'Neal' and 'Neil'.

The name 'Neil' 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.

The original meaning of 'Neil' is unclear, but Champion or Cloud are the most popular meanings assigned to it today.

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