The place name can be translated as new cellar. It first appeared in Aniane's cartulary, written in 799, where it is mentioned that Benedict of Aniane (c. 747-821) created a priory, called Cella nova on the soil of Juvignac, even before the city of Montpellier was founded (first mentioned in a document of 985).
Abbé Fabre (1727–1783), a prior of Celleneuve, writer of Occitan literature, whose Sermoun de moussu sistre, delivered by a drunken priest against intemperance, is a masterpiece.
Léo Malet (1909-1996), a crime novelist and the creator of fiction character Nestor Burma.