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Neon Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

Neon gas was first discovered by William Ramsay and Morris Travers in 1898 in London. Neon signs are the result of French engineer and chemist, Georges Claude. In 1902 Georges and his French company Claude applied an electric discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas to create a neon lamp. By 1923, Claude Neon had introduced neon gas signs to the United States; however, neon reached its height of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s with many colourful designs that advertised a huge range of products.

I particularly remember two neon signs in Sydney. One was a massive animated red and white neon sign advertising Coco Cola which was erected at Kings Cross in 1974. Another was an animated neon sign over a sports store (mainly golfing). The sign was composed of a figure hitting a golf ball in an arc into a hole and a flag. The flag on the sign shows the number 19, referring to the golfing reference of the "19th hole" as the clubhouse after a round of golf. It was erected in 1964 and and operated until 2007.

Neon (or fluorescent) colors are extremely bright versions of primary and secondary colors, such as blue, red, green, yellow, and purple. Fluorescent colors stand apart from other types of color due to the fact that they emit light, making them luminescent.

Conventional/normal color can reflect only light in the visible range, in the case of Fluorescent Colors, it even converts absorbed UV light and reflects in the visible range, thereby color appear brighter than normal color. 

Under normal conditions, neon gas is colourless, but it has a bright red-orange glow (discharge) when electricity is applied. Every noble gas has its own characteristic discharge colour. Those of the others are: helium: orange-yellow.