The area now known as Neungju was originally called Ireungburi-gun under the kingdom of Baekje. Under King Gyeongdeok of Silla, it was renamed Neungseong-gun (綾城郡), and in the early Goryeo period it belonged to Naju before being elevated to an independent county in 1143 (the 21st year of King Injong's reign). Through these several changes of name and status, the region existed, on the whole, as a relatively ordinary local administrative unit.
Then, in 1632 (the tenth year of King Injo's reign), an event suddenly raised the region's standing. Because Neungseong-hyeon happened to be the ancestral home — the bon-gwan — of Queen Inheon, King Injo's own mother, born of the Gu clan, Neungseong-hyeon was renamed Neungju and elevated a full administrative rank to the status of a mok. It was a case in which royal bloodline connections instantly elevated a town's status. But this elevated standing did not last forever. When Donbok-gun was later incorporated, expanding the administrative territory itself, the combined district was renamed Hwasun County — and with that renaming, the name "Neungju-mok" disappeared entirely from official use. A name elevated by the fortune of being a king's mother's birthplace now survives only as the name of a single township within Hwasun County.