Royal

15,194 people in the United States were counted with the surname Royal in the 2020 census, making it the 2,337th most common in the country. That is about one person in 19,700.

By the numbers

People: 15,194
Rank: 2,337th
How common: 1 in 19,700
Per 100,000: 5.1

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

A habitational surname, shaped by folk etymology, from places in England, Riehale, Righale, Ryhill and Ryall, Old English ryge (“rye”) + hyll (“hill”), and Royle, rā (“roe”) + hyll (“hill”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Royal described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 49.7%
Black, not Hispanic 40.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.9%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called Royal

Ségolène Royal (born 1953)French politician
Emerson Royal (born 1999)Brazilian association football player
Billy Joe Royal (1942–2015)American singer

People named Royal with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Royal

Also a first name

Royal has been given to 24,394 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 2021. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.