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Roy

Name list

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
18 min read
Source updated September 16, 2026

Roy is both a given name and a family surname with varied origins.

01France and England

A furore Normannorum, libera nos, Domine!

THE KING OF AMIGNY ... It is therefore to the seventh century that we would have to go back and delve into the furious hordes of those indomitable Norsemen, whose origins we have just outlined, to find there, in France, the mother stock of those LE ROYs we are discussing ...

,  Du Cluzel de Remaurin, Knight

Origin

Written interchangeably in records as: Roi, Le Roi, De Roy, and Le Roy, the surname Roy originated from the Normans, the descendants of Norse Vikings who settled in Amigny, a commune in Manche, Normandy in the 10th century.

Roy derived from the Old Northern French roy, roi (Old French pronunciation: [rɔi̯]), meaning "king", or "the king" (royne for "queen"). It arose as a Norman byname before the Conquest and was passed on as a family name in the Middle Ages.

The Vikings, after having been given their new lands, adopted the Old French language of the northern regions of France and created the Duchy of Normandy. Their descendants, the Normans, took their language and naming practices with them to England, where a dialect of Old Norman called Anglo-Norman was formed.

Normandy

Originally, Roy or Roi was a Norman regal name. A man may have had 'kingly' bearing, held a position of authority, was a tournament victor, or it was given as a byname in direct service to the king. This reflects Norman adaptation of social or martial identifiers, a cultural inheritance from their Viking ancestry, forming a family name that was passed down.

In Normandy, the Roy family originated from knighthood and several knights, abbots and feudal lords (seigneur) of the family passed down the name throughout France and Switzerland. Early permanent names belonged to nobles as this was needed to secure: estate inheritance and land ownership, legal proof of hereditary titles and pedigrees documenting alliances, marriages and royal connections. Surnames were not common amongst the lower class in the early medieval populations. Commoners used nicknames or profession names, but they changed every generation as a son did not generally inherit his father's descriptive or trade name until they became fixed by the late 14th century.

In the 12th century, the Roy family was amongst the other family surnames identified in the city of Caen in Normandy. Official medieval records of the period show the name was recorded originating from the same lineage in its vernacular forms, or translated by scribes into the Latinised Rex, dictus Rex ("called king") or the genitive form, Regis.

One of the earliest references cite Guillaume de Roy (William of Roy), who was a knight of the Knights Templar. While born Guillaume Le Roy, the usage of de Roy ("of Roy"), a nobiliary particle, signified hereditary nobility. Specifically, it identified Guillaume as the lord of a fief and from the noble house of Roy, who originated from a paternal lineage of knights that was recognized by the monarch. This was an official legal requirement in the Latin Rule to be a knight of the Templars. Guillaume de Roy was recorded as Guillelmus de Roy, Templar of the Diocese of Soissons, by the court scribes during the Trials of the Knights Templar.

Anglo-Norman England

After the Norman Conquest, the victorious Normans and their allies settled England and eventually formed the ruling class of nobles called Anglo-Normans. Roy or Roi was a family name and also a title that was held by the kings of England. The royal administration integrated the legal term "roy" into the titles of official state offices: Norroy "North King" and Viceroy "in place of King". Anglo-Norman kings would also pass on hereditary patronymic surnames like Fitzroy, from Fi(t)z meaning "son of" and Roy "king", denoting the name bearer as a "son of the king".

Le Roy le veult ("The King wills it"), written and spoken in the original form of "Roy", is a Norman phrase still used in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to this day as royal assent. A legacy of a time prior to 1488 when parliamentary and judicial proceedings were conducted in Norman French, the language of the conquerors after 1066.

North America

In Canada and in the United States, the descendants of the families of Roy, Le Roy that immigrated to North America have been granted a coat of arms by the Governor General of Canada.

Coat of arms of Le Roy, Normandy. Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Coat of arms of Le Roy, Normandy. Bibliothèque nationale de France.

02South Asia

In India and Bangladesh, Roy is an anglicized Bengali variant of the surname Rai, meaning "king". Rai (title), is the historical title of royalty and nobility in the Indian subcontinent, used by rulers and chieftains of many princely states and as a family name.

Before the British Raj, the English spelling of "Roy" did not exist in Bengali records because those records were primarily kept in Bengali, Persian script or Sanskrit-derived scripts. The transition occurred as the British transliterated local titles into English based on how they heard them pronounced. In the Bengali language, the Sanskrit root Raja or Rai is typically pronounced as the English "Roy".

The name is diverse and can be found among upper castes as well as among the scheduled castes.

Le Roy of Normandy (Silver, three black merlettes)
Le Roy of Normandy (Silver, three black merlettes)

03Scotland

The name Roy is also found in Scotland, an anglicisation from the Scottish Gaelic nickname ruadh, meaning "red". The name predominantly comes second as a middle name. A famous example of the name usage is that of Rob Roy MacGregor, who was a Scottish outlaw and folk hero.

Coat of arms of the Knights Templar
Coat of arms of the Knights Templar

04Given name

"Roy" Edward III, King of England. Bruges Garter Book.
"Roy" Edward III, King of England. Bruges Garter Book.

05Surname

Arms of the Association of Roy Families of America
Arms of the Association of Roy Families of America

06Fictional characters

Watch videos about RoyExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Roy”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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