Royston
A masculine name of English origin meaning "town where rye is grown".
Name Census estimates that about 167 living Americans carry the first name Royston. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Royston today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Royston births was 2016 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Royston. 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 Royston with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
167
~ 1 in 2,052,421 Americans
Peak year
2016
10 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,582
Tracked since 1916
Census
Royston in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 496 people with the first name Royston, which placed it at #20,722 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
#20,722
National first-name rank
People counted
496
496 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
52.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Royston
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Royston is Black at 52.0%. The next largest groups are White (31.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.1%). 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 Royston 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 Royston at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American52.0% · 258
- White31.0% · 154
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.1% · 40
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 20
- Two or more races3.6% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 6
Popularity
Royston: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Royston from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Royston remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Royston 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 Royston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Royston
The name Royston has its origins in England, where it first emerged in the Middle Ages as a locational surname derived from the place name Royston, a town in Hertfordshire. This place name is believed to have been derived from the Old English words "Ru" and "stān," meaning "rough stone."
The earliest recorded instance of the name Royston dates back to the 13th century, when it appeared in the Assize Rolls of Staffordshire in 1272 as "Reynaldus de Royston." This suggests that the name was initially used as a surname to denote a person's place of origin or residence.
Over time, the surname Royston gradually transitioned into a given name, likely influenced by the trend of adopting locational surnames as first names during the late medieval and early modern periods. This practice was particularly common among the upper classes and gentry, who sought to distinguish themselves with unique and distinctive names.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Royston was Royston Pechey (c. 1480-1558), an English lawyer and Member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. Another notable bearer of the name was Royston Randolph (c. 1575-1623), a member of the prominent Randolph family of Virginia and one of the early settlers of the Virginia Colony.
In the 17th century, Royston Moore (1596-1651) was an English clergyman and author who served as the Bishop of Norwich. During the same period, Royston Spicer (1608-1680) was a prominent English Puritan minister and author.
Moving into the 18th century, Royston Greenwell (1690-1772) was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist who played a significant role in the Catholic Emancipation movement in England.
These examples demonstrate the enduring use of Royston as a given name across various social strata and professions throughout British history, reflecting its origins as a locational surname and its gradual adoption as a distinctive first name.
People
Royston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Royston as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Royston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Royston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 167 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Royston 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 2,052,421 US residents.
Is Royston a common name?
We classify Royston as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 244 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Royston most popular?
The single biggest year for Royston was 2016, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Royston is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Royston in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 496 people with the name Royston, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,722 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 Royston 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 Royston?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Royston leans strongly male. 489 people counted with this name were male (99.0%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.0%). 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 Royston?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Royston is Black at 52.0%. The next largest groups are White (31.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.1%). 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 Royston most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Royston in the 2020 Census, accounting for 52.0% (258 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 Royston in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Royston a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Royston 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 Royston still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Royston 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 Royston 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 people are named Royston?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.