Royston
A masculine name of English origin meaning "town where rye is grown".
Name Census estimates that about 167 living Americans carry the first name Royston. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Royston today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Royston births was 2016 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Royston. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
167
~ 1 in 2,052,421 Americans
Peak year
2016
10 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,582
Tracked since 1916
Popularity
Royston: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Royston from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 59 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Royston remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Royston by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Royston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Royston
The name Royston has its origins in England, where it first emerged in the Middle Ages as a locational surname derived from the place name Royston, a town in Hertfordshire. This place name is believed to have been derived from the Old English words "Ru" and "stān," meaning "rough stone."
The earliest recorded instance of the name Royston dates back to the 13th century, when it appeared in the Assize Rolls of Staffordshire in 1272 as "Reynaldus de Royston." This suggests that the name was initially used as a surname to denote a person's place of origin or residence.
Over time, the surname Royston gradually transitioned into a given name, likely influenced by the trend of adopting locational surnames as first names during the late medieval and early modern periods. This practice was particularly common among the upper classes and gentry, who sought to distinguish themselves with unique and distinctive names.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Royston was Royston Pechey (c. 1480-1558), an English lawyer and Member of Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII. Another notable bearer of the name was Royston Randolph (c. 1575-1623), a member of the prominent Randolph family of Virginia and one of the early settlers of the Virginia Colony.
In the 17th century, Royston Moore (1596-1651) was an English clergyman and author who served as the Bishop of Norwich. During the same period, Royston Spicer (1608-1680) was a prominent English Puritan minister and author.
Moving into the 18th century, Royston Greenwell (1690-1772) was an English Roman Catholic priest and controversialist who played a significant role in the Catholic Emancipation movement in England.
These examples demonstrate the enduring use of Royston as a given name across various social strata and professions throughout British history, reflecting its origins as a locational surname and its gradual adoption as a distinctive first name.
People
Royston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Royston as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Royston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Royston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 167 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Royston going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,052,421 US residents.
Is Royston a common name?
We classify Royston as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 244 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Royston most popular?
The single biggest year for Royston was 2016, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Royston is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Royston a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Royston in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.