@Vanessa A It actually stands for... "Non Employee Compensation". It took over the most common use of the 1099-MISC, mainly to simplify compliance with the PATH Act (which requires W-2s and NEC forms to be sent to the IRS as well as taxpayers by Jan. 31 while delaying refunds containing EITC or Additional CTC till after Feb. 15 in an attempt to combat refund fraud). The old 1099-MISC was used for both NEC (subject to the 1/31 PATH Act IRS deadline) and non-NEC income (not due to the IRS till 2/28 or 3/31); moving NEC to a separate form made it easier to understand which forms had to be sent to the IRS by 1/31.
