Elroy
Masculine · “the king”
Elroy is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 7,476 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Elroy comes from Leroy, and Leroy is French for the king — le roi, with the article stuck on the front and never removed.
How old is the name Elroy?
Elroy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Elroy alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 3,000 people named Elroy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Elroy most popular?
Elroy peaked in 1922, reaching #438 nationally. Today it ranks #4539, 4,101 places below that high. See the whole 1922 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Elroy
Ours, offered as ours. English does this repeatedly with borrowed words: it takes the foreign article along with the noun and forgets it is there. Alligator is el lagarto, the lizard. Alcohol, algebra and alchemy all carry the Arabic al. Leroy is le roi, the king. Then Elroy respells the article as though it were an El- prefix, which adds a second layer of forgetting to the first.
Meaning
the king
From French le roi, the king; the surname Leroy was a byname for someone who played a king in a pageant or behaved like one. Elroy is a respelling that reanalyses the l as part of an El- opening.
Pronouncing Elroy
EL-roy
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Elroy
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1922192 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #438reached in 1922
- Change vs 2022
- +15.8%22 in 2025, from 19
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Elroy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Le Roy in French — related form
- Leroy in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Elroys among us
people named Elroy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 77,640 born in 2025 was named Elroy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Elroy
- #4539
- Elroy on the 2025 chart
- #882
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Elroy went to 22 boys in 2025, but Elroi is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 46, which makes it the 882nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,657 places above the chart.
- Elroi24
- Elroy22
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 77,640 for Elroy itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ivory test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Elroy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ivory climbed just as high around 1906, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ivory's path sketches the road Elroy is walking now.
Elroy sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Elroy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Elroy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning that is transparent once the article is pointed out.
- Roy is a complete short form with its own long record.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Leroy is the more common form and will be assumed.
- It is strongly associated with one mid-century American generation.
- The El- is a swallowed French article, not a Hebrew element.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Elroy
Masculine · #4539 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Elroys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Elroy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Elroy?
- Elroy is one of 2 recorded spellings. Elroi is the more common one — 24 births in 2025 against 22 for Elroy.
- How popular is the name Elroy in 2025?
- Elroy ranks #4539 among US boy names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Elroy?
- About 1 in every 77,640 US boys born in 2025 was named Elroy — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Elroy with classmates?
- Elroy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Elroy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nels#4539 · Gabe#4539 · Michel#4539 · Orlin#4539 · Pearce#4539 · Josemaria#4539 · Jory#4539 · Napoleon#4539
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Elroy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Elroy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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