Given name
Nereo
“great swimmer”
Nereo is a masculine given name from Ancient Greek. It is used in Italian.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Nereo goes back to Greek Néreys, meaning “great swimmer.”
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
Nereo is a variant of Nereus. An origin associated with Nereus is Greek.
Explained through its name family
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1987. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin. Nereo is a variant of Nereus. The history of Nereus gives this family its wider story. In mythological stories, Nereus is associated with the father of the Nereids, the sea nymphs.
Combines direct and name-family evidence
Nereo through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 21
- 21 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1999
- 6 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 2002. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 6 in 1999. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 406 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Nereo
- Nereo RoccoItalian football manager (1912–1979)
- Nereo ChampagneArgentine footballerborn 1985
- Nereo OdchimarFilipino Roman Catholic bishop (1940–2024)
- Nereo LaroniItalian politician (1942-2019)
- Nereo LópezColombian photographer1920–2015
- Nereo FernándezArgentine footballerborn 1979
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Nereo, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.