Royal
2025 SSA
2025 SSA
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.
Royal for girls#1663 US
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.
Royal for boys#476 US
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 #1663 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #628 in 2016, Nameberry popularity #438.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank · girls | Births · girls | US rank · boys | Births · boys |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #1,024 | 255 | #570 | 489 |
| 2015 | #742 | 380 | #467 | 648 |
| 2016 | #628 | 476 | #461 | 662 |
| 2017 | #697 | 417 | #505 | 576 |
| 2018 | #800 | 341 | #482 | 610 |
| 2019 | #790 | 351 | #459 | 653 |
| 2020 | #773 | 352 | #405 | 738 |
| 2021 | #840 | 329 | #370 | 884 |
| 2022 | #863 | 322 | #370 | 878 |
| 2023 | #995 | 256 | #401 | 794 |
| 2024 | #1,225 | 192 | #427 | 738 |
| 2025 | #1,663 | 125 | #476 | 640 |
World rankings
Royal for girls
Royal for boys
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Royal on lists
Famous Royals
- Royal Reign Jones Neil (b. 2014)Girl
daughter of rappers Lil Kim and Mr. Papers
- Royal Edward DanoBoy
American actor
- Royal Eason IngersollBoy
U.S. Navy four,star admiral
- Royal Harbor aka KnocBoy
turn'al, American rapper
- Royal RifeBoy
American inventor; claimed to know cancer cure
- Royal WilderBoy
brother,in,law of American novelist Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Royal LamarBoy
son of rapper Rich Homie Quan
Royal in pop culture
- Nathan Royal ScottBoy
main character "One Tree Hill"
- Royal GardnerBoy
from Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of the Island"
- Royal TenenbaumBoy
main character in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums"
- Royal Gould WilderBoy
character in the Little House series