Ptolemy referred to Nemunas as Chronos (although competing theories suppose Chronos was in fact Pregolya).

The river has lent its name to the Neman Culture, a Neolithic archaeological subculture.

In German, the part of the river flowing in what earlier was Prussia has been called die Memel at least since about 1250, when Teutonic Knights built Memelburg castle and the town of Memel at the mouth of the Curonian Lagoon, naming it after the indigenous name of the river, Memel.
The city of Memel, now in Lithuania, is known today as Klaipėda (confusingly, the city of Memel was on the Dange River, now called the Danė River, not the Memel River).
On German road maps and in German lexika, only the 112-kilometer (70 mi) section within Prussia (starting at Schmalleningken) was named Memel; the part outside Germany was labelled Niemen.

The border between the State of the Teutonic Order and Lithuania was fixed in 1422 by the Treaty of Lake Melno and remained stable for centuries.
 The Treaty of Tilsit between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I was signed on a raft in the river in 1807.
 Napoleon's crossing at the outset of the 1812 French invasion of Russia is described in War and Peace and also mentioned in Pan Tadeusz.
In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles made the river the border separating the Memel Territory from German East Prussia as of 1920.
 At that time, Germany's Weimar Republic adopted the Deutschlandlied as its official national anthem.
 In the first stanza of the song, written in 1841, the river is mentioned as the eastern border of a (then politically yet-to-be united) Germany:
Lithuanians refer to the Nemunas as "the father of rivers" (Nemunas is a masculine noun in Lithuania).
Countless companies and organizations in Lithuania have "Nemunas" in their name, including a folklore ensemble, a weekly magazine about art and culture, a sanatorium, and numerous guest houses and hotels.
Lithuanian and Polish literature often mention the Nemunas.
One of the most famous poems by Maironis starts:
Almost every Lithuanian can recite these words by heart.

There are many other smaller rivers and rivulets in Lithuania with names that may have been derived from "Nemunas" — Nemunykštis, Nemuniukas, Nemunynas, Nemunėlis, Nemunaitis.
The etymology of the name is disputed: some say that "Nemunas" is an old word meaning "a damp place", while others that it is "mute, soundless river" (from nemti, nėmti "to become silent", also memelis, mimelis, mėmė "slow, worthless person").
The name is possibly derived from the Finnic word niemi "cape".

Art critics praised its depiction in the paintings by Michał Kulesza.
Ptolemy referred to Nemunas as Chronos (although competing theories suppose Chronos was in fact Pregolya).
The river has lent its name to the Neman Culture, a Neolithic archaeological subculture.
In German, the part of the river flowing in what earlier was Prussia has been called die Memel at least since about 1250, when Teutonic Knights built Memelburg castle and the town of Memel at the mouth of the Curonian Lagoon, naming it after the indigenous name of the river, Memel. The city of Memel, now in Lithuania, is known today as Klaipėda (confusingly, the city of Memel was on the Dange River, now called the Danė River, not the Memel River). On German road maps and in German lexika, only the 112-kilometer (70 mi) section within Prussia (starting at Schmalleningken) was named Memel; the part outside Germany was labelled Niemen.
The border between the State of the Teutonic Order and Lithuania was fixed in 1422 by the Treaty of Lake Melno and remained stable for centuries.  The Treaty of Tilsit between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I was signed on a raft in the river in 1807.  Napoleon's crossing at the outset of the 1812 French invasion of Russia is described in War and Peace and also mentioned in Pan Tadeusz. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles made the river the border separating the Memel Territory from German East Prussia as of 1920.  At that time, Germany's Weimar Republic adopted the Deutschlandlied as its official national anthem.  In the first stanza of the song, written in 1841, the river is mentioned as the eastern border of a (then politically yet-to-be united) Germany:
Lithuanians refer to the Nemunas as "the father of rivers" (Nemunas is a masculine noun in Lithuania). Countless companies and organizations in Lithuania have "Nemunas" in their name, including a folklore ensemble, a weekly magazine about art and culture, a sanatorium, and numerous guest houses and hotels. Lithuanian and Polish literature often mention the Nemunas. One of the most famous poems by Maironis starts:
Almost every Lithuanian can recite these words by heart.
There are many other smaller rivers and rivulets in Lithuania with names that may have been derived from "Nemunas" — Nemunykštis, Nemuniukas, Nemunynas, Nemunėlis, Nemunaitis. The etymology of the name is disputed: some say that "Nemunas" is an old word meaning "a damp place", while others that it is "mute, soundless river" (from nemti, nėmti "to become silent", also memelis, mimelis, mėmė "slow, worthless person"). The name is possibly derived from the Finnic word niemi "cape".
Art critics praised its depiction in the paintings by Michał Kulesza.
Neman