Roy
Masculine · “red”
Roy is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 408,638 boys against 2,693 girls since 1880. See Roy as a girl name
Roy is the Gaelic word for red, not the French word for king. Almost everyone assumes the second, because roi is French for king and the resemblance is exact, and almost every Roy in the English-speaking world descends from the first.
How old is the name Roy?
Roy was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Roy alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 175,000 people named Roy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roy most popular?
Roy peaked in 1889, reaching #18 nationally. Today it ranks #525, 507 places below that high. See the whole 1889 chart.
Where it comes from
From ruadh to Roy
The story of Roy
Robert MacGregor was called Rob Roy — Red Rob — because of his hair, and after a life of cattle-raiding, blackmail and shifting allegiances he became, through a novel published a century later, one of the most famous Scotsmen who ever lived. The byname went into English as a name in its own right, helped along by the book and by the general Victorian enthusiasm for anything Highland. It arrived in America in the nineteenth century and was near the top of the lists within a generation. The French king is not in it anywhere, though a good many Roys have been told he is.
Meaning
red, red-haired
The Gaelic ruadh means red and was used constantly as a descriptive byname for hair or complexion. The French roi is a coincidence of sound, and no line connects it to the name.
How the name formed
- ruadh
- Roy
Related forms: Ruadh · Rua
Pronouncing Roy
ROY
One syllable, rhyming with boy. The Gaelic original is said ROO-uh, which is not obvious from the English spelling.
Nicknames for Roy
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
- 19487,067 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #18reached in 1889
- Change vs 2022
- +12.0%570 in 2025, from 509
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.
Roy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ruadh in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Rua in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Roys among us
people named Roy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,997 born in 2025 was named Roy
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Roy has held the top-100 across 9 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 Roy is headed
Roy 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.
Roy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Roy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and three letters, with no possible mispronunciation.
- It works well in front of long surnames, where fuller names get crowded.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- It is strongly associated with the first half of the twentieth century.
- Almost everyone will tell you it means king, and it does not.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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What they receive
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Roy
Masculine · #525 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Roys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 175,000 people named Roy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roy in 2025?
- Roy ranks #525 among US boy names in 2025, with 570 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Roy?
- About 1 in every 2,997 US boys born in 2025 was named Roy — 570 in all.
- Will my child share the name Roy with classmates?
- Roy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Roy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Finnegan#526 · Chozen#523 · Mohamed#527 · Philip#527 · Gianni#523 · Tripp#522 · Azriel#529 · Ridge#529
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Roy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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