Roy
From a Germanic root meaning "red" or "king". Fewer than 500 Poles carry it, almost all of them men, and each year brings fewer still, so most people here will never meet one.
Roy Pronunciation
Roy is pronounced RO-ih (/ˈrɔɨ/).
What Roy means
Where Roy comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Roy comes from a Germanic root and settled into English, where it holds two meanings at once: "red" and "king". The first points to colour, the hair or face of someone marked as ruddy. The second sits close to the French roi, the crowned head of a kingdom. In Polish the pair reads czerwony and król.
Short names like this wear well. Roy Orbison, the Texan singer born in 1936, gave the name a black-suited fame that outlasted him. There is no standard diminutive and no feminine twin; Roy stands on its own, three letters and done.
Picture a Polish class register: Roy entered between Robert and Rozalia, a foreign guest among home-grown names. The teacher reads it without stumbling. Older than any register is the meaning it holds: a word for red, and a word for a king.
How many people are named Roy
1 in 45906 men in Poland is named Roy. 468 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1371 among male names.
Roy's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Where Roy is most popular
Roy is most popular in Masovian, 510% above the national average (2 boys born 2019–2025).
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Masovian2 boys born+510%
Roy as a middle name
Roy is a first name for 468 men in Poland and a middle name for another 132, a 78/22 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 609th, between Diter (133) and Alain (131).
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#607 Gustav134
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#608 Diter133
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#609 Roy132
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#610 Alain131
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#611 Bryan131