Humanverse

Roy vs Royse

American parents have registered 411,331 Roys since 1880, against 36 Royses. Roy is still ahead, with 570 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Roy against Royse, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Roy Royse

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Roy has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Roy had 487 and Royse had 5.

Side by side

  Roy Royse
Total US births 411,33136
Most in one year 7,5926
Babies in 2025 570under 5
Estimated living today 168,00020
Median age today 649
Peak year 19471930
Best rank 48th boys3,592nd boys
Rank in 2025 525thunranked
First recorded 18801930
Girls / boys 2,693 / 408,63810 / 26

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Roys alive today are over 64; half the Royses are over 9. That is 55 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Roy and Royse.