Leroy
Masculine · “The king”
Leroy is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 200,981 boys against 1,182 girls since 1880. See Leroy as a girl name
Leroy is two French words welded together, and English stresses the wrong one. In French the weight falls on the noun; the American pronunciation puts it on the article, so that the name is said with the emphasis on the word for the rather than on the word for the king.
How old is the name Leroy?
Leroy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Leroy alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 75,500 people named Leroy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Leroy most popular?
Leroy peaked in 1907, reaching #50 nationally. Today it ranks #883, 833 places below that high. See the whole 1907 chart.
Leroy appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From le roi to Leroy
The story of Leroy
The kings the word refers to were believed to heal by touch. The French crown and the English one both claimed the power for six hundred years, holding public ceremonies at which sufferers from scrofula, a tubercular swelling of the neck, were brought forward in their hundreds and touched on the face; the English kings gave each of them a gold coin, which is one reason the queues were long. Charles the Second touched something like a hundred thousand people. The practice was defended as evidence that the monarchy was divinely appointed, was quietly dropped in England after the Hanoverians arrived because they thought it absurd, and lasted in France until the revolution. The disease often remits on its own, which kept the reputation intact.
Meaning
The king
Le roi, written as one word in the French way of forming surnames. It was never a claim to royalty: nicknames of this kind were given for playing a king in a pageant, for manner, or in irony, in the same way that English produced King, Prince and Bishop as surnames without anybody holding the office.
How the name formed
- le roi
- Leroy
Related forms: Leroy
Pronouncing Leroy
LEE-roy
Two syllables with the stress at the front in American English and at the back in French. Both are current in the United States, and the front-stressed version is the older and commoner of the two.
Nicknames for Leroy
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
- 19243,922 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #50reached in 1907
- Change vs 2022
- −4.3%269 in 2025, from 281
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.
Leroy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Leroy in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Pennsylvania, Texas, California.
Leroys among us
people named Leroy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 6,350 born in 2025 was named Leroy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Leroy
- #883
- Leroy on the 2025 chart
- #641
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Leroy went to 269 boys in 2025, but Leeroy is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 301, which makes it the 641st most-given boys’ name of the year — 242 places above the chart.
- Leroy269
- Leeroy32
About 1 boy in 5,675 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 6,350 for Leroy 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
Fashion outlook
Leroy has held the top-100 across 7 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Leroy is headed
Leroy should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Leroy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Leroy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent and can be given to a child in three words.
- Roy is a complete, plain, established name sitting in the second half.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It is strongly dated to the first half of the last century in American ears.
- Two stress patterns are current and the first person to say it aloud fixes it.
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What they receive
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Leroy
Masculine · #883 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Leroys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 75,500 people named Leroy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Leroy?
- Leroy is the most-used spelling in US records — 269 of the 301 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Leeroy.
- How popular is the name Leroy in 2025?
- Leroy ranks #883 among US boy names in 2025, with 269 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Leroy?
- About 1 in every 6,350 US boys born in 2025 was named Leroy — 269 in all.
- Will my child share the name Leroy with classmates?
- Leroy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Leroy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reuben#883 · Jericho#883 · Jagger#883 · Trey#883 · Emory#883 · Izan#883 · Kolson#883 · Eren#882
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Leroy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Leroy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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