Leroy
Of French origin meaning "the king" or "the regal one".
Name Census estimates that about 80,730 living Americans carry the first name Leroy. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Leroy today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Leroy births was 1924 (3,948 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Leroy. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Leroy with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Leroy is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,182 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Leroy have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
81K
~ 1 in 4,246 Americans
Peak year
1924
3,948 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#862
Tracked since 1880
Census
Leroy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 67,713 people with the first name Leroy, which placed it at #750 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#750
National first-name rank
People counted
68K
67,713 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
22.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Leroy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leroy is White at 48.8%. The next largest groups are Black (39.2%) and Hispanic (7.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Leroy described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Leroy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.8% · 33,046
- Black or African American39.2% · 26,545
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 4,773
- Two or more races2.4% · 1,632
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 1,094
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 623
Gender
Gender distribution for Leroy
Out of the 201,884 babies given the name Leroy since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Leroy as a male name
- Ranked #862 in 2024
- 278 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1924 (3,922 births)
Leroy as a female name
- Ranked #14,419 in 1991
- 5 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1930 (39 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leroy appears almost entirely male. Of the 67,707 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Leroy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Leroy from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 38,113 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Leroy by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Leroy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Leroys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas recorded the most babies named Leroy, while Alaska, New Hampshire, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,707 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Leroy
The name Leroy is a French given name with origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is a masculine name derived from the Old French words "le" meaning "the" and "roy" meaning "king" or "ruler". The name essentially means "the king" or "the regal one".
In its earliest forms, the name was spelled in various ways such as Leeroy, Leroy, or Leroi. It was a popular name among the French nobility and upper classes during the medieval era, as it conveyed a sense of royalty and power.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Chronicle of Saint-Denis, a historical record from the 12th century, which mentions a nobleman named Leroy de Montfort. However, the name's origins may date back even further, as it is believed to have been used during the time of the Frankish kings in the 5th and 6th centuries.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Leroy. One of the earliest was Leroy de Lusignan (1195-1240), a French nobleman and leader of the Fifth Crusade. Another was Leroy de Créqui (1623-1687), a French military commander who served under Louis XIV during the Franco-Dutch War.
In the realm of arts and literature, Leroy C. Cooley (1833-1900) was an American artist known for his landscape paintings, while Leroy Neiman (1921-2012) was a famous American painter and sketch artist renowned for his colorful depictions of sporting events.
The name Leroy also has a historical connection to the American South, where it was popularized among African American families during the post-Civil War era. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1906-1982), a legendary baseball pitcher who played in the Negro Leagues and later in Major League Baseball.
Another notable figure was Leroy "Truck" Fludd (1928-2014), an American jazz drummer and percussionist who performed with some of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, including Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Leroy
People
Leroy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Leroy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Leroy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Leroy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 80,730 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Leroy going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 4,246 US residents.
Is Leroy a common name?
We classify Leroy as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 201,884 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Leroy most popular?
The single biggest year for Leroy was 1924, when 3,948 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Leroy is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Leroy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 67,713 people with the name Leroy, or 22.42 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #750 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Leroy in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Leroy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Leroy appears almost entirely male. Of the 67,707 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Leroy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Leroy is White at 48.8%. The next largest groups are Black (39.2%) and Hispanic (7.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Leroy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Leroy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.8% (33,046 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Leroy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Leroy a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Leroy in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Leroy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Leroy in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Leroy can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Leroy?
See how many Americans are named Leroy on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.