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ArchivesMy column on Leroy
Here is the link to today's column:
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-the-name-leroy-fictional-or-famous-goes-back-in-time/article_6a9f5c7c-81b4-11ef-9f6a-87847613fe60.html
I was surprised that Leroy was fairly common in the USA in the early 18th century. It seems to have been one of the first non-British surnames to become established as a given name in the United States. (The surname dictionaries I consulted give "Roy" as an English surname coming from the French word for "king" that goes back to Norman times, but they don't include Leroy as an English name so it only seems to have been brought to the UK and North America by much later immigrants.)
https://omaha.com/life-entertainment/local/cleveland-evans-the-name-leroy-fictional-or-famous-goes-back-in-time/article_6a9f5c7c-81b4-11ef-9f6a-87847613fe60.html
I was surprised that Leroy was fairly common in the USA in the early 18th century. It seems to have been one of the first non-British surnames to become established as a given name in the United States. (The surname dictionaries I consulted give "Roy" as an English surname coming from the French word for "king" that goes back to Norman times, but they don't include Leroy as an English name so it only seems to have been brought to the UK and North America by much later immigrants.)
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Replies
Could Leroy be short for Fauntleroy? I noticed both names come up together in early examples in Richmond Virginia.
What other non-British surnames were there? I suppose Lafayette and Marion came late 1700s. Marion only counts on the technicality that Francis Marion was from a French Huguenot family, not English. Schuyler and Yancy never got as popular by 1850s like Leroy.
What other non-British surnames were there? I suppose Lafayette and Marion came late 1700s. Marion only counts on the technicality that Francis Marion was from a French Huguenot family, not English. Schuyler and Yancy never got as popular by 1850s like Leroy.
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Some parts of the US, particularly in the South, were settled by French Huguenots who were fleeing persecution in France. Some of them probably had Leroy as a surname.
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