Leroy

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Le Roy in BE Belgium.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

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

• French given name400K records spelled Leroy5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, China, United Kingdom

  Also written Le-Roy, Léroy

• Spanish given name109K records spelled Leroy13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Le-Roy, Le'Roy, Leróy, Lërõy, Lëröy

• Swahili given name7.0K records spelled Leroy2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, South Africa, United Kingdom, Kenya

  Also written Le-Roy

• Polish given name3.5K records spelled Leroy2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Poland, United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands

  Also written Le Roy

• Greek given name2.8K records spelled Leroy2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Greece, United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands

  Also written Λερουα

• English given name2.2K records spelled Leroy37 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, France, United Kingdom, South Africa

  Languages: English, French, Thai

  Also written Leeroy, Lee-Roy, ลีรอย, Lëeroy, Léěròý

• Russian given name2.0K records spelled Leroy20 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Russia, United Kingdom, South Africa

  Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

  Also written Леруа, Leeroy, Лерой, Lee-Roy, Лерои

71 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●

Leroy 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, A male given name transferred from the surname.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In French, Voir Roy.

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

• In English, French: the king; see Elroy.

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, ) Leroi [la'roi], ['li:roi]: in den i98oer-Jahren entlehnter männl. Vom., der aus einem Familiennamen (zu altfranzös. le roy »der König«) hervorgegangen ist. Dem

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• English: now considered a typical Black American given name, but formerly also extensively borne by White Americans. It is from a French nickname meaning ‘the king’, but it is not entirely clear why this particular form should have become such a popular given name in English. See also DELROY .

  as a word

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.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Paul Robesonb. 1898USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, actor, and political activist (1898–1976)
• Leroy Andersonb. 1908USAmerican composer (1908-1975)
• Robert Johnsonb. 1911USnot in their usual nameAmerican blues singer and guitarist
• Gordon Cooperb. 1927USnot in their usual nameAmerican astronaut (1927–2004)
• Butch Otterb. 1942USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician (born 1942)
• Newt Gingrichb. 1943USnot in their usual nameAmerican politician and former speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• Samuel L. Jacksonb. 1948USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1948)
• Daniel Baldwinb. 1960USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1960)
• Leroy Ferb. 1990NLDutch association football player (born 1990)
• Leroy Sanéb. 1996DEGerman association football player

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 650 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Leroy?

We estimate roughly 69 thousand people bear Leroy (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Leroy have the most bearers?

We estimate about 68 thousand people bear Leroy in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled leroy.

Where is Leroy most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Leroy is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 861 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Leroy compared with other names?

In the United States, Leroy is the 348th most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Leroy a male or female name?

Leroy is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Leroy mean?

Recorded meaning: ‘servant of the king’, or perhaps from a medieval French nickname for someone with regal airs, from Old French le roy ‘the king’.