Roy

Where Roy comes from

From various sources: * Anglo-Norman roy (“king”) a variant of Old French roi, from Latin rēx, rēgem from Proto-Indo-European *h₃rḗǵs (“ruler, king”). Doublet of Rey. * Scottish Gaelic ruadh (“red, red-haired”) from Old Irish rúad, from Proto-Celtic *roudos from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ-. * Anglicisation of Bengali রায় (raẏ, surname). Doublet of Rai, rex, and rajah.
— Wiktionary's entry for Roy
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • 1 syllable
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #37 among boys — 440 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1892
    Peak, #18
    1,048 babies named Roy — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1925
    Roy J. Glauber born
    American theoretical physicist
  4. 1936
    Roy Orbison born
    American musician
  5. 2009
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #557.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Scottish Gaelic.
Namesakes
  • Roy J. Glauber · American theoretical physicist, 1925–2018
  • Roy Orbison · American musician, 1936–1988
  • Roy Keane · Irish football manager, born 1971
  • Roy Lichtenstein · American pop artist, 1923–1997
  • Roy Scheider · American actor, 1932–2008

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.