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 of
Levallois-Perret. It was not until 1222 that the little settlement of Neuilly, established on the banks of the
Seine, was mentioned for the first time in a
charter of the
Abbey of Saint-Denis: the name was recorded in
Medieval Latin as
Portus de Lulliaco, meaning "Port of Lulliacum". In 1224 another charter of Saint-Denis recorded the name as
Lugniacum. In a sales contract dated 1266, the name was also recorded as
Luingni. In 1316, however, in a ruling of the
parlement of Paris, the name was recorded as
Nully. In a document dated 1376, the name was again recorded as
Nulliacum (the Medieval Latin version of
Nully). Then in the following centuries the name recorded alternated between
Luny and
Nully, and it is only after 1648 that the name was definitely set as
Nully. 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 been
Lulliacum or
Lugniacum, and that it was only later corrupted into
Nulliacum /
Nully. Some interpret
Lulliacum or
Lugniacum as meaning "estate of Lullius (or Lunius)", probably a
Gallo-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-Roman
patronym, because during the Roman occupation of
Gaul the area of Neuilly was inside the large
Forest of Rouvray, of which the
Bois 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 name
Lulliacum or
Lugniacum comes from the ancient Germanic word
lund meaning "forest", akin to
Old Norse lundr meaning "grove", to which the placename suffix "-acum" was added. The Old Norse word
lundr has indeed left many placenames across Europe, such as the city of
Lund in Sweden, the Forest of the Londe in
Normandy, 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" of
lund is missing in
Lulliacum or
Lugniacum. Concerning the discrepancy in names over the centuries, the most probable explanation is that the original name
Lulliacum or
Lugniacum was later corrupted into
Nulliacum /
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 the
French Revolution, the settlement was often referred to as
Port-Neuilly, but at the creation of
French communes in 1790 the "Port" was dropped and the newly born commune was named simply
Neuilly. 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 of
Ternes, in the
17th arrondissement of Paris. On 11 January 1867, part of the territory of Neuilly-sur-Seine was detached and merged with part of
Clichy to create the commune of
Levallois-Perret. On 4 June 1878, the
Synagogue de Neuilly was founded on Rue Ancelle, the oldest synagogue in the Paris suburbs. On 2 May 1897, the commune name officially became Neuilly-sur-Seine (meaning "Neuilly upon
Seine"), in order to distinguish it from the
many communes of France also called Neuilly. Most people, however, continue to refer to Neuilly-sur-Seine as simply "Neuilly". During the
1900 Summer Olympics, it hosted the
basque pelota events. The
American Hospital of Paris was founded in 1906. In 1919, the
Treaty of Neuilly was signed with Bulgaria in Neuilly-sur-Seine to conclude its role in World War I. In 1929, the
Bois de Boulogne, which was previously divided between the communes of Neuilly-sur-Seine and
Boulogne-Billancourt, was annexed in its entirety by the city of Paris. ==Politics==