Hello,
  A While ago a friend of mine asked me where Neopolitan Ice Cream got
it's name from. I was fairly confident that I could find this
information, as I consider myself fairly web saavy. Thus far, I have
been unable to figure out the answer to this question, so $5.00 to
whoever can figure this one out. I'm looking for an answer that will
include at least one reliable source, history of Neopolitan ice cream
and what method you used to find this information
Thanks,
Agonizing Fury

Hi, and thanks for the question

Neopolitan comes from the great ice-cream making tradition in Naples.
(A Neopolitan is a resident of Naples)

Naples has a long tradition of making ice cream.
This comes from an ice-cream history page (
http://www.freemanriver.com/Ice_Cream/ice_cream_history.html )
"The early methods of freezing foods needs some explanation. Freezing
of foods was achieved by mixing salt with ice. Mixing salt with ice
reduces the freezing point and it is quite easy to achieve
temperatures lower than -14°C.
"This process did not arrive in Europe until 1503, in Italy. It was
not used for food until water ices (sorbets) appeared in the 1660’s in
Naples, Florence, Paris and Spain. Later in 1664 ices made with
sweetened milk first appeared in Naples.

Apparently the classic 3 coloured block first appeared in Naples,
under the name "spumoni"
Here's a reference to spumoni from "The Best of Sicilly"(
http://www.bestofsicily.com/food.htm#s )

"....tricolored, three-flavored (usually cherry, chocolate and
pistachio) Neapolitan ice cream (is) virtually unknown in Italy today
but still made in the United States, where it was introduced in the
1890s. (The American term "Neapolitan" for vanilla, chocolate and
strawberry tricolored ice cream is based on its former identification
with spumoni)

Italian immigrants to the USA brought their ice-cream making skills
with them, and used the termn "Neopolitan" to give it an "authentic"
ring. (And they did the same with pizza!)

This is also backed up by the Wickipedia entry on "Neopolitan ice
Cream"
( http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_Ice_Cream )

Hope that's what you were after.

willie-ga

searches used
Naples ice cream history

Willie,
  Thanks for the great answer. This is my first question to Google
Answers, and with the results of this, it will definately not be my
last. Your answer was very clear, and included everything I asked for
and more. Thanks again for the great work.

Agonizing Fury

I realize this is a vague comment but...the author Gary Jennings goes
into a bit of the history of "frozen flavored ices" in his book The
Journeyer, a work of historical fiction based on the life and travels
of Marco Polo.  Well, it's either The Journeyer or Aztec, I don't
recall which.  lol  However, if you are a lover of historical fiction,
I highly recommend Jennings books.