Royal
About Royal
A superlative word name along the lines of Saint, King, Princess, and Chosen, Royal was mostly used for boys — as in Wes Anderson's anti-hero Royal Tennenbaum — until Lil' Kim named her daughter Royal. Reign in 2014. While it was Reign that really took off for girls, Royal also got a boost and entered the Top 1000 in 2015.
Associated with kings, queens, princesses, and power, Royal has a cool but lofty air: it feels totally modern while also evoking history. Also used as a surname (in which case it likely denoted someone who worked in the royal household), it comes from the Latin regalis and rex meaning "king".
Recent years have seen it fall to the latter end of the US charts while it remains a high ranking option for boys. Longer form Royalty, however, rankers more highly as a girl name.
Pronounced ROY-ul.
As of October 2026, Royal ranked #1663 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #628 in 2016, Nameberry popularity #438.
Editor: Sophie Kihm
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #1,024 | 255 | 142.7 |
| 2015 | #742 | 380 | 212.9 |
| 2016 | #628 | 476 | 268.6 |
| 2017 | #697 | 417 | 241.5 |
| 2018 | #800 | 341 | 200.5 |
| 2019 | #790 | 351 | 209.1 |
| 2020 | #773 | 352 | 217.7 |
| 2021 | #840 | 329 | 200.5 |
| 2022 | #863 | 322 | 196.3 |
| 2023 | #995 | 256 | 159.5 |
| 2024 | #1,225 | 192 | 118.5 |
| 2025 | #1,663 | 125 | 77.8 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Royal.
- Stormy
- Ash
- Legacy
- Royalty
- Starr
- Blaze
- Karma
- Gypsy
- Journey
- Kulture
- Ocean
- Daxtyn
- North
- Icelyn
- Halo
- Majesty
- Justice
- Dior
- Heaven
- Dream
Royal on lists
Famous Royals
- Royal Reign Jones Neil (b. 2014)
daughter of rappers Lil Kim and Mr. Papers