Roy

surname · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Roy is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Algeria it is the 68th most common surname. Recorded meaning: from a French nickname for regal behavior or for a red-haired person; also a form of Ray or a Hindu name meaning ‘king’.

rarermore common
  • CACanada≈1 in 1K(inferred from the name graph)
  • AEUnited Arab Emirates≈1 in 2.8K
  • DZAlgeria≈1 in 3.2K

carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.

United States (measured from records)

53,159 people, 2010

2 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
570 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 1.0K (inferred from the name graph)

Canada, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

RoyLatin(measured from records)
רועיHebrew(measured from records)

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled רועי in FR France.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

from a French nickname for regal behavior or for a red-haired person; also a form of Ray or a Hindu name meaning ‘king’

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Roy counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.

Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.

Where Roy is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
US United States#50353,1591 in 6.3K176KRoy570
FR France—≈38,000 est.≈1 in 1.8K3.6Kרועי12
IN India—37,5091 in 35K38KRoy226
CA Canada#97≈36,000 est.≈1 in 1K10Roy283
GB United Kingdom#333≈15,000 est.≈1 in 4.3K—Roy297
DZ Algeria#68≈13,000 est.≈1 in 3.2K—Roy11
AE United Arab Emirates#173≈3,500 est.≈1 in 2.8K—Roy95
KW Kuwait#160≈870 est.≈1 in 3.4K—Roy33

53,159 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.

Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Instate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls; Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Roy is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Hindi surname117 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Bangladesh, United Kingdom

    Languages: Hindi, Bangla, Urdu

    Also written Ray, রায়, রায, Rāẏa, Röy

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Rōy

  • Spanish surname22 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Argentina, Philippines, Mexico

    Also written Röy, Řōÿ, Röÿ, Róy, Ŕőý

  • French surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Canada, United States, Belgium

  • Indonesian surname4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, United States

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written 'Roy

  • Norwegian surname7 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Denmark, United Kingdom, India

    Languages: Norwegian, Danish, Swedish

    Also written Roÿ

  • Sinhala surname3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Canada, United Kingdom

    Also written රෝයි, Royi

95 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Roy is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, from OFr roi ‘king’, also used as a personal name; first attested Adam le Roy 1268 FFSf

    as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames

  • In Irish, Gaelic ruadh, ‘red’; not connected with French roi ‘king’.

    as a nameIrish first names

  • Gaelic ruadh, ‘red’, unconnected with French roi, ‘king’. A Ne Ruth name which originated in Scotland and spread from there to England and Ireland. Ruth [Rut] (f) A Biblical name of unknown derivation. It is becoming increasingly popular in Ireland.

    as a nameIrish first names

  • In English, A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In French, soit de (Le) Roy, le nom de plusieurs localités en France, ou de roi, surnom ironique.

    as a nameDictionnaire des noms de famille du Canada français. Anthroponymie et généalogie. 2e édition

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

18001850190019502000Edward James Roye, b. 1815Manabendra Nath Roy, b. 1887Gabrielle Roy, b. 1909Nirupa Roy, b. 1930Deep Roy, b. 1952Arundhati Roy, b. 1961Ronit Roy, b. 1965Maxim Roy, b. 1972Brandon Roy, b. 1984Drew Roy, b. 1986

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 125 sources across 63 countries.

Official registers attesting Roy
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020202054K#606
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010201053K#640
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000200050K#621
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls—38K#388
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19913.6K—

Reference works 9

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Frequently asked questions

What does the name Roy mean, and where does it come from?
from a French nickname for regal behavior or for a red-haired person; also a form of Ray or a Hindu name meaning ‘king’ Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
What are other forms of the name Roy?
In the etymology graph, Roe and Kilroy are forms of the same name in other languages.
In which country does Roy have the most bearers?
In the United States, the national register counted about 53 thousand people named Roy, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled roy.
How common is the name Roy?
In the United States, the national register counted 53,159 people named Roy in 2010, about 1 in 6.3 thousand residents.
How common is Roy compared with other names?
In the United States, Roy is the 503rd most common surname of 6,282,806 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Roy?

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Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/roy

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use; a free API key gives 1,000 requests a day, and bulk access is licensed separately.

About this data

measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated

These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Roy” — the 503rd most common surname in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Roy parses inside a full name →