Royce
Masculine · “From the medieval name Royse”
Royce is given to both — 33,154 boys and 2,508 girls since 1880. See Royce as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Royce is one syllable that lands cleanly — it rhymes with choice, and almost nobody has to ask how to spell it twice. It began as an English family name handed down from a medieval given name, then joined the long parade of surnames that crossed into first-name use in the nineteenth century, and it has held a steady place in American records through every fashion since.
How old is the name Royce?
Royce first appears in US birth records in 1892 — 133 years ago. The typical Royce alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 24,000 people named Royce are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Royce most popular?
Royce peaked in 1935, reaching #283 nationally. Today it ranks #499, 216 places below that high. See the whole 1935 chart.
Royce appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Rohese to Royce
The story of Royce
Royce is a surname before it is a first name, and like Perkins or Watson it comes from a parent's name rather than a trade or a place: the bearer was the child of a Royse. Royse itself was a real medieval English name, an English shaping of Rohese, which the Normans carried into England after the eleventh century and which was in ordinary use there for centuries. As English and American parents began taking family surnames for first names in the nineteenth century, Royce came with them, and it entered American birth records in that wave. It has never disappeared since — quieter now than at its high point, but continuously in use.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the medieval name Royse; the older Germanic elements read roughly as "fame" and "kind, sort"
Two readings compete. The main one traces Royce to the medieval English name Royse, an English form of the Norman Rohese, built from Germanic elements usually given as hrod "fame" and heid "kind, sort". The other treats Royse simply as an early form of Rose, which is how the name was often understood and written in England by the later Middle Ages. Both roads pass through the same medieval name, so the disagreement is about what that name meant, not where Royce came from.
How the name formed
- Rohese
- Royse
- Royce
Related forms: Royse · Roys · Rohese · Rose
Pronouncing Royce
ROYSS
One syllable, rhyming with voice and choice. The final sound is a clean -s, not a -z.
Nicknames for Royce
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
- 1892
- Most boys named
- 2022778 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #283reached in 1935
- Change vs 2022
- −22.1%606 in 2025, from 778
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.
Royce in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Royse in English — spelling variant
- Roys in English — spelling variant
- Rohese in Anglo-Norman — related form
- Rose in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Royces among us
people named Royce are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,819 born in 2025 was named Royce
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Russel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Royce's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Russel climbed just as high around 1913, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Russel's path sketches the road Royce is walking now.
Royce 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
Where Royce is headed
Royce should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Royce beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Royce in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, spelled the way it sounds — it survives phone calls, roll call and forms with little trouble.
- Roy works as a ready-made short form and stands on its own as a given name, so there is a formal and an informal option built in.
- In continuous American use across many generations, which means it reads as familiar to adults rather than newly invented.
- Functions equally well as a surname-style first name and as a first name in its own right, which suits it to a wide range of last names.
- Rolls-Royce is the association most Americans reach for first. It is a pleasant one, but expect the occasional joke about luxury cars, and the pairing gets stronger if your surname is short and grand-sounding.
- In speech it sits close to Bryce, Boyce and Reece, so mishearings happen more often than misspellings do.
- The name traces back through the medieval Royse, which was given to women; in American records Royce is a boys' name and has been throughout. Worth knowing in case an etymology page mentions it.
- A child named Royce will likely be the only one in the class — good for distinctiveness, and it does mean the name gets remarked on now and then.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Royce
Masculine · #499 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Royces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 24,000 people named Royce are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Royce in 2025?
- Royce ranks #499 among US boy names in 2025, with 606 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Royce?
- About 1 in every 2,819 US boys born in 2025 was named Royce — 606 in all.
- Will my child share the name Royce with classmates?
- Royce will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Royce
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Brantley#499 · Jasiah#498 · Alessandro#497 · Odin#501 · Damon#501 · Armani#495 · Zaire#503 · Donovan#495
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Royce? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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