Leroy (name)

Leroy, also Leeroy, LeeRoy, Lee Roy, LeRoy, Le Roy or Roy is both a male given name and a surname.

France


In France, this family name originated from the Normans, the descendants of Norse Vikings who migrated to Amigny, a commune in Manche, Normandy. The derivation is from the Old French roy, roi, meaning "king", which was a byname used before the Norman Conquest and a personal name in the Middle Ages.

Earliest references cite Guillaume de Roy (William of Roy), who was a knight of the Knights Templar and one of several knights and feudal lords (seigneur)  of the Roy family in France.

In Canada and in the United States, the descendants of the families of Roy, Le Roy that immigrated to North America have been granted a coat of arms by the Governor General of Canada.

England
After the Norman Conquest, the victorious Normans and their allies settled England and eventually formed the ruling class of nobles called Anglo-Normans. Le Roy, or Le Roi was a family name and also a title that was used by the kings of England & royal administration. This is seen with patronymic surnames like Fitzroy, from Fi(t)z, meaning "son of" and Roy, "king", denoting the name bearer as a "son of the king".

Le Roy le veult ("The King wills it"), is a Norman French phrase still used in the Parliament of the United Kingdom to this day as royal assent. A legacy of a time prior to 1488 when parliamentary and judicial proceedings were conducted in Norman.

Given name

 * Leroy (musician), American musician
 * Leroy Anderson, American composer
 * Leroy Brown (athlete), Olympic medal-winning American athlete
 * Leroy Brown (wrestler), a ring name of professional wrestler Roland Daniels
 * Leroy "Shaq" Buchanan (born 1997), American basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
 * Leroy Burrell, American athlete
 * Leroy Carr, blues singer and pianist
 * Leroy Gordon Cooper, American astronaut
 * Leroy D'Sa (born 1953), Indian badminton player and coach
 * LeRoy Edwards, American professional basketball pioneer
 * "Baby Face" Leroy Foster, Chicago blues musician
 * Leroy George, Dutch footballer
 * Leroy Griffiths, professional footballer
 * Leroy Grumman, American aircraft designer and industrialist
 * LeRoy Hurd, American basketball player
 * Leroy Jenkins (jazz musician), jazz musician
 * Leroy Jenkins (televangelist), American televangelist
 * Leroy Jetta, professional Australian rules footballer
 * Leroy S. Johnson, leader of the polygamist denomination of FLDS
 * Leroy Lita, Congolese-born English footballer
 * Leroy Looper (1924–2011), American community organizer and housing activist in San Francisco
 * Leroy Nash, American criminal
 * LeRoy Neiman, American artist
 * Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige, American professional baseball player
 * Leroy Parmelee (1907–1981), American baseball player
 * Leroy Rosenior, English footballer and coach
 * Leroy Sané, German footballer
 * Lee Roy Selmon, former NFL football defensive lineman
 * Leeroy Stagger, Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter
 * Leeroy Thornhill, British electronic music artist
 * Leroy Van Dyke, American singer
 * Leroy A. Wilson, American businessman
 * Leroy Wright, American professional basketball player
 * LeeRoy Yarbrough, NASCAR racer

Surname

 * Adolphe Leroy, French entrepreneur, co-founder of Leroy Merlin
 * Adrian Le Roy (c.1520–1598), French lutenist, guitarist, and composer
 * Adrien Leroy (born 1981), French chess player and poet
 * Ali LeRoi (born 1962), American television producer and writer
 * Alphonse Leroy (engraver) (1820–1902), French engraver
 * Alphonse Leroy (physician) (1742–1816), French physician and obstetrician
 * Amélie Claire Leroy (1851–1934), English writer, pen-name Esmè Stuart
 * André Leroy (1801–1875), French botanist
 * Catherine Leroy (1945–2006), French war photojournalist
 * Charles-Georges Le Roy (1723–1789), French man of letters
 * Claude Le Roy (born 1948), a French football manager and former player
 * Edouard Le Roy (1870–1954), French philosopher
 * Edward Webster Le Roy (1874–1940), American politician and newspaper editor
 * Eugène Le Roy (1836–1907), French novelist
 * Jean-François Leroy (1729–1791), French architect
 * Jennifer LeRoy (born 1974), American model and actress
 * Jérôme Leroy (composer) (born 1981), French composer
 * Jérôme Leroy (footballer) (born 1974), French footballer
 * JT LeRoy, a literary persona created by American writer Laura Albert
 * Jules Leroy (1903–1979), French priest and researcher
 * Julien Le Roy (1686–1759), French clock- and watch-maker
 * Julien-David Le Roy (1724–1803), French architect and archaeologist, son of Julien
 * Laurent Leroy (born 1976), French footballer
 * Maxime Leroy (1873–1957), French jurist and social historian
 * Mervyn LeRoy (1900–1987), American actor and director
 * Oswald Leroy (1936–2022), Belgian mathematician, acousto-optics theorist
 * Nolwenn Leroy (born 1982), French singer
 * Philippe Leroy (1930-2024), French actor
 * Pierre Le Roy (1717–1785), French clockmaker, son of Julien
 * Pierre Le Roy de Boiseaumarié (1890–1967), French co-founder of the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO)
 * Robert LeRoy (1885–1946), American tennis player
 * Roland Leroy (1926–2019), French politician
 * William E. Le Roy (1818–1888), United States Navy admiral
 * Xavier Leroy (born 1968), French computer scientist and programmer

Fictional characters

 * "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown", protagonist of a song by Jim Croce
 * "Leroy Johnson", a character in the film Fame, played by Gene Anthony Ray
 * "Bring Back That Leroy Brown", subject of a song by Queen
 * Leroy Encyclopedia Brown, the titular protagonist of the Encyclopedia Brown children's novels
 * Leroy (Lilo & Stitch), also known as Experiment 629, a character introduced in Leroy & Stitch
 * Leroy (South Park), a South Park character
 * Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a fictional character in the NCIS TV series
 * Leeroy Jenkins, World of Warcraft character
 * The fictional Leroy family in the TV show Corner Gas:
 * Brent Herbert Leroy, one of the main characters in Corner Gas, played by Brent Butt
 * Emma Leroy, one of the main characters in Corner Gas, played by Janet Wright
 * Oscar Leroy, one of the main characters in Corner Gas, played by Eric Peterson
 * Leroy, a junkyard dog in the DIC show, The Catillac Cats.
 * Leroy Smith, a character from Tekken series