Roy

France and England

A furore Normanorum, 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 ...

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 French roy, roi (French pronunciation: [ʁwa]), meaning "king", or "the king", which was a byname used before the Norman 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 may have been a regal name, either from "kingly" bearing, a position of authority, a tournament winner, or one who was in the service of the king. This reflects Norman adaptation of social or martial identifiers – a cultural inheritance from their Viking ancestry, eventually forming a family name that would be passed down.

The Roy family originated from knighthood and several knights passed down the name in Normandy. The family divided into multiple noble branches 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 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 and one of several knights, abbots and feudal lords (seigneur) of the Roy family. 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.

South 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.

Scotland

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.

Given name

Roy van Aalst (born 1983), Dutch politician

Roy Abbott (1927–2004), Australian politician

Roy Abell (1931–2020), English cricketer

Roy Abergil (born 1990), Israeli footballer

Roy Clive Abraham (1890–1963), African language scholar

Roy Ackerman (1942–2017), English restaurateur

Roy Acuff (1903–1992), American country music singer and fiddler

Roy Adam (1883–1958), Australian rules footballer

Roy Adams (writer) (born 1940), American academic

Roy Adams (cricketer) (born 1989), South African cricketer

Roy Daryl Adams, American politician

Roy Addison (1939–2021), British boxer

Roy Adkins (American football) (1898–1975), American football player

Roy Francis Adkins (1947–1990), English gangster

Roy Adler (1931–2016), American mathematician

Roy Afflerbach (born 1945), American politician

Roy Agnew (1891–1944), Australian composer

Roy Aitken (born 1958), Scottish footballer and manager

Surname

A. D. Roy (1920–2003), British economist

A. K. Roy (1935–2019), Indian politician

Abani Roy (1939–2021), Indian politician

Adrienne Roy (1953–2010), American comics colorist

Ajit Roy (1938–2011), Bangladeshi singer

Ajoy Roy (1935–2019), Bangladeshi physicist and human rights activist

Anupam Roy (born 1982), Indian singer and music director

Anuparna Roy (born 1994), Indian film director

Anuradha Roy (novelist) (born 1967), Indian Bengali novelist and journalist

Arun Roy (1968 or 1969–2025), Bangladeshi cinematographer

Aruna Roy (born 1946), Indian Tamil social activist

Arundhati Roy (born 1961), Indian Keralite novelist and political activist

Avik Roy, American political commentator

Bidhan Chandra Roy (1882–1962), Indian Bengali politician

Bikash Roy (1916–1987), Indian Bengali actor

Bimal Roy (1909–1966), Indian Bengali film director

Brandon Roy (born 1984), American basketball player

Fictional characters

Esme & Roy's eponymous monster

Kiriti Roy, a fictional detective created by Nihar Ranjan Gupta

Roy (Fire Emblem), from the video game Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

Roy Cropper, from the British soap opera Coronation Street

Roy Harper (character), a superhero in the DC Comics universe

Roy Mustang, from the manga Fullmetal Alchemist

Roy Anderson, from The Office