Laroy
Masculine · “The king”
Laroy is Leroy with the first vowel changed, and Leroy is the two French words for the king welded into one. The change of vowel is small and it does something quite specific: it removes the last piece of French grammar the name still had.
How old is the name Laroy?
Laroy first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Laroy alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 800 people named Laroy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Laroy most popular?
Laroy peaked in 1932, reaching #1509 nationally. See the whole 1932 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From le roi to Laroy
The story of Laroy
Leroy is among the most common surnames in France, and it crossed into English-speaking use as a first name in the nineteenth century, when American families were freely moving surnames to the front. Laroy is the American respelling of it. In French, le is masculine and la is feminine, so writing Laroy puts a feminine article in front of a masculine noun; in English that observation has no force at all, because the article stopped being an article at the moment the two words were welded together. What the spelling really records is a name that had stopped being read as French: an English speaker writing by ear, hearing a colorless vowel at the front, and choosing the letter that looked natural for it.
Meaning
The king
Le roi, the king, written as one word in the ordinary French way of forming surnames. It was never a claim to royalty. Nicknames of this kind were given for playing the king in a pageant, for drawing the king's portion at Epiphany, for a certain manner of carrying oneself, or plainly in irony, which is the same set of reasons that produced the English surnames King, Prince, Bishop and Abbot. None of those men held the office either.
How the name formed
- le roi
- Leroy
- Laroy
Related forms: Leroy · Leroi
Pronouncing Laroy
luh-ROY
Two syllables with the weight on the second, luh-ROY. The other common American reading puts the stress at the front, LEE-roy, and that one is more usual with the Leroy spelling. The a in this version invites the first.
Nicknames for Laroy
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 198926 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1509reached in 1932
- Change vs 2016
- −28.6%5 in 2021, from 7
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.
Laroy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leroy in French — same name
- Leroi in French — spelling variant
Laroys among us
people named Laroy are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Laroy sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent and pleasant, and it can be given to a child in four words.
- Roy is waiting inside it as a short, solid everyday name that needs no explanation.
- It is familiar in sound while rare in spelling, which is an unusual combination to find.
- Leroy is the expected spelling by a wide margin, and this version will be corrected by people who assume a mistake.
- The name is strongly dated in American ears to the middle of the last century.
- Two live stress patterns means the name has to be introduced, and the wrong one will stick if it is heard first.
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Laroy
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Laroys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Laroy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Laroy in 2025?
- Laroy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Laroy with classmates?
- Laroy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More L names
The most-given names starting with L, all years combined.
Larry#1084 · Lawrence#518 · Louis#249 · Logan#53 · Liam#1 · Lucas#10 · Luke#33 · Leonard#637
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Laroy? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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