Names/R

Roy

boys’ nameFadedCompare

Roy is ranked 541st among boys in 2024 (552 births). Its best rank was 18th, in 1889–1894.

Rank in 2024
#541up 15 from 2023
Births in 2024
5520.03% of boys
Peak year
19477,560 births
Best rank
#18first in 1889
Since 1880
410,743people given the name
Babies named Roy, by year of birthboys
02.5k5k7.5k10k18801900192019401960198020002020

The story in the numbers

408,050 boys have been named Roy in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1947, with 7,560 births — 0.41% of all boys recorded that year.

The name has all but left use: 552 births in 2024, against 7,560 at the peak.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1943, and the 1940s alone account for 16%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 89 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 2,693 girls have also been given it, 0.66% of the total.

Rank among boys, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)
#1#250#500#750#100018801900192019401960198020002020

By decade

Decadeboys named Roy
1880s6,565
1890s9,779
1900s10,632
1910s40,340
1920s63,259
1930s51,495
1940s65,645
1950s61,847
1960s40,044
1970s22,352
1980s14,308
1990s8,600
2000s5,578
2010s5,015
2020s2,591

In 1947, its biggest year

Roy was the 48th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1947 were James, Robert, John, William and Richard. See all of 1947.

Names that rose and fell with Roy

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.