Royal
Top 1000
About Royal
Even less subtle than Duke or Earl, this name shot up the popularity charts in 2013, the same year young Prince George was born and the craze for all things royal (and Royal) began. Today, it's a leading boys' name on Nameberry's own popularity charts.
While Royal ranks on the US Top 1000 list for both girls and boys, It's rising precipitously for boys but softening for girls. There are currently nearly three times as many boy babies named Royal as girls..
Pop culture references: the hit Lorde song "Royals.", the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums (in which the paterfamilias was named Royal), and most recently, the Amazon Prime series Outer Range, a supernatural neo-Western starring Josh Brolin as Royal Abbott.
The name's resemblance to the more classic Roy doesn't hurt either.
Pronounced ROY-ul.
As of October 2026, Royal ranked #476 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #279 in 1889, Nameberry popularity #809.
Editor's take: The name Royal is a boy's name of French, English origin meaning "royal".
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #570 | 489 | 254.6 |
| 2015 | #467 | 648 | 338.1 |
| 2016 | #461 | 662 | 348.8 |
| 2017 | #505 | 576 | 311.2 |
| 2018 | #482 | 610 | 335.9 |
| 2019 | #459 | 653 | 363.9 |
| 2020 | #405 | 738 | 427.6 |
| 2021 | #370 | 884 | 505.3 |
| 2022 | #370 | 878 | 502.9 |
| 2023 | #401 | 794 | 464.2 |
| 2024 | #427 | 738 | 428.4 |
| 2025 | #476 | 640 | 374.7 |
World rankings
Similar names
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Royal on lists
Famous Royals
- Royal Edward Dano
American actor
- Royal Eason Ingersoll
U.S. Navy four,star admiral
- Royal Harbor aka Knoc
turn'al, American rapper
- Royal Rife
American inventor; claimed to know cancer cure
- Royal Wilder
brother,in,law of American novelist Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Royal Lamar
son of rapper Rich Homie Quan
Royal in pop culture
- Nathan Royal Scott
main character "One Tree Hill"
- Royal Gardner
from Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of the Island"
- Royal Tenenbaum
main character in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums"
- Royal Gould Wilder
character in the Little House series