Perhaps from Neville in Normandy, or Neuville, a common place name in France. Thomas de Neovilla witnessed a charter by Roger, bishop-elect of St. Andrews, c. 1189-98 (RPSA., p. 153), Jacobus de Neuilla witnessed a confirmation by Roger de Quinci of the gift by William de Len to the Abbey of Scon in the reign of Alexander II (Scon, p. 49). Richard de Neville of Perth rendered homage, 1296 (Bain, II, p. 186,197). Janet Nevill was married in Perth, 1568 (Northern Notes and Queries, I, p. 169.)

In Latin, De Nova Villa, anglice, ' New-town.' There are two Nevilles, and at least eighteen Neuvilles in Normandy, but from which of those localities this illustrious surname is derived there is no proof; and indeed the early genealogy of the family is obscure. Dugdale, upon the authority of certain genealogists, asserts that the patriarch of the race in England was Gilbert de Neville, Admiral to the Conqueror, but there is, as the historian of the family remarks, no mention of him in Domesday. Rowland, Family of Nevill, p. 6. The great granddaughter of this Admiral, Isabel Neville, married one Robert Fitz-Maldred, who according to Boger Hoveden, was the lineal heir-male of Uchtred, Earl of Northumberland, in the days of Edmund Ironside, and a descendant in the female line from King Ethelred. The representative of the Northumbrian earls, Gospatrick, was established in his earldom by the Conqueror, but was afterwards compelled by Norman tyranny to fly into Scotland, where he became ancestor of the Earls of Dunbar, and eventually of the Nevilles of Baby. "The Nevilles are thus a Saxon race with a Norman name." Quarterly Rev. vol. ciii. p. 32.

(French.) "De Neuve ville,"of the new town. Neuville, a town in Poiton, France.

The Nevells of Oxfordshire may perhaps be connected in their descent with the De Neviles or De Nevills, who, in the reign of Edward I., were very numerous in the adjoining county of Wilts as well as in Lincolnshire (H. R.).