Neuilly is mainly made up of residential neighborhoods and hosts several corporate headquarters and foreign embassies. One of the most affluent areas of France, it is the wealthiest and most expensive suburb of Paris.[3][4] Although, as of 2020, it is the commune with only the fourth highest medianper capita income (€52,570 per year) in France,[5] if Neuilly is grouped together with the city’s adjacent16th and17th arrondissements, they form the most affluent residential area in the country.[6]
Originally, Pont de Neuilly was a small hamlet under the jurisdiction of Villiers, a larger settlement mentioned in medieval sources as early as 832 and now absorbed by the commune ofLevallois-Perret. It was not until 1222 that the little settlement of Neuilly, established on the banks of theSeine, was mentioned for the first time in acharter of theAbbey of Saint-Denis: the name was recorded inMedieval Latin asPortus de Lulliaco, meaning "Port of Lulliacum". In 1224 another charter of Saint-Denis recorded the name asLugniacum. In a sales contract dated 1266, the name was also recorded asLuingni.[citation needed] The proper spelling would have beenLiljakumpu.
In 1316, however, in a ruling of theparlement of Paris, the name was recorded asNully. In a document dated 1376, the name was again recorded asNulliacum (the Medieval Latin version ofNully). Then in the following centuries the name recorded alternated betweenLuny andNully, and it is only after 1648 that the name was definitely set asNully.[citation needed]
Various explanations and etymologies have been proposed to explain these discrepancies in the names of Neuilly recorded over the centuries. The original name of Neuilly may have beenLulliacum orLugniacum, and that it was only later corrupted intoNulliacum /Nully. Some interpretLulliacum orLugniacum as meaning "estate of Lullius (or Lunius)", probably aGallo-Roman landowner. This interpretation is based on the many placenames of France made up of the names of Gallo-Roman landowners and suffixed with the traditional placename suffix "-acum".
Other researchers, however, object that it is unlikely that Neuilly owes its name to a Gallo-Romanpatronym, because during the Roman occupation ofGaul the area of Neuilly was inside the largeForest of Rouvray, of which theBois de Boulogne is all that remains today, and was probably not a settlement. These researchers contend that it is only after the fall of the Roman Empire and the Germanic invasions that the area of Neuilly was deforested and settled. Thus, they think that the nameLulliacum orLugniacum comes from the ancient Germanic wordlund meaning "forest", akin toOld Norselundr meaning "grove", to which the placename suffix "-acum" was added. The Old Norse wordlundr has indeed left many placenames across Europe, such as the city ofLund in Sweden, the Forest of the Londe inNormandy, or the many English placenames containing "lound", "lownde", or "lund" in their name, or ending in "-land". This interesting theory, however, fails to explain why the "d" oflund is missing inLulliacum orLugniacum.
Concerning the discrepancy in names over the centuries, the most probable explanation is that the original nameLulliacum orLugniacum was later corrupted intoNulliacum /Nully by inversion of the consonants, perhaps under the influence of an old Celtic word meaning "swampy land, boggy land" (as was the land around Neuilly-sur-Seine in ancient times) which is found in the name of many French places anciently covered with water, such as Noue, Noë, Nouan, Nohant, etc. Or perhaps the consonants were simply inverted under the influence of the many settlements of France called Neuilly (a frequent place name whose etymology is completely different from the special case of Neuilly-sur-Seine).
Until theFrench Revolution, the settlement was often referred to asPort-Neuilly, but at the creation ofFrench communes in 1790 the "Port" was dropped and the newly born commune was named simplyNeuilly.
On 1 January 1860, the city of Paris was enlarged by annexing neighbouring communes. On that occasion, a part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was annexed by the city of Paris, and forms now the neighbourhood ofTernes, in the17th arrondissement of Paris.
On 11 January 1867, part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was detached and merged with a part of the territory ofClichy to create the commune ofLevallois-Perret.
On 4 June 1878, theSynagogue de Neuilly was founded on Rue Ancelle, the oldest synagogue in the Paris suburbs.
In 1919, theTreaty of Neuilly was signed with Bulgaria in Neuilly-sur-Seine to conclude its role in World War I.
In 1929, theBois de Boulogne, which was previously divided between the communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine andBoulogne-Billancourt, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris.
Neuilly used to be one of the most right-wing towns in France, regularly voting for the candidate of the traditional right by landslide margins. Former presidentNicolas Sarkozy was mayor of Neuilly from 1983 to 2007.[8] Amidst a poor national showing of 20%, Neuilly gave right-wing candidateFrançois Fillon 65% of its vote in the first round of the2017 presidential election.
In more recent elections, which have tended to be polarized betweenEmmanuel Macron’s centrist coalition and the right-populistNational Rally, Neuilly has broken for Macronist parties likeEn Marche! andEnsemble instead.
The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine ceded part of its territory to the new commune ofLevallois-Perret in 1866.[9]
RATP, Paris’s transit agency, also operates bus service in the commune on lines 43, 73, 82, 93, 157, 158, 163, 164, and 174 during the day and N11 and N24 at night.[1]Archived 29 June 2021 at theWayback Machine
^"Legal disclaimerArchived 16 March 2014 at theWayback Machine." [sic]JCDecaux. Retrieved on 28 September 2011. "[...]whose registered office is located at 17 rue Soyer, 92523 Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, France."
