Leroy (name)

A furore Normanorum, libera nos, Domine! THE KING OF AMIGNY... It is therefore to the seventh century that we would have to go back and delve into the furious hordes of those indomitable Norsemen, whose origins we have just outlined, to find there, in France, the mother stock of those LE ROYs we are discussing...

Written interchangeably in records as: Roi, Roy, Le Roi, and De Roy, the surname Le Roy originated from the Normans, the descendants of Norse Vikings who settled in Amigny, a commune in Manche, Normandy.^[1][2][3][4] It derived from the Old French roy, roi (French pronunciation: [ʁwa]), meaning "king", or "the king" which was a byname used before the Norman Conquest and a personal name in the Middle Ages.^[5] The Normans, or "Northmen", after having settled in their new lands in Northern France, quickly adopted the Old French dialects of the region and would later take their language and naming practices with them to England.^[6][7]

Norman usage of the spelling variant Roy in written text dates back to the 12th-century Norman poet Wace in Roman de Rou, where he used both the "rei" & "roy" forms for the title of "king".^[8][9] Wace wrote in vernacular Old Norman (also known as Old Northern French), which is among the few records of Old Norman that remain.^[10] The Le Roy family is also recorded in the 12th century amongst the other family surnames of the city of Caen in Normandy.^[11]

Originally, Roy may have been a regal name, either from "kingly" bearing, a position of authority, a tournament winner, or one who was in the service of the king.^[12] This reflects Norman adaptation of social or martial identifiers — a cultural inheritance from their Viking ancestry, eventually forming a family name that would be passed down.^[13][14]

Earliest references cite Guillaume de Roy (William of Roy), who was a knight of the Knights Templar^[15][16][17] and one of several knights, abbots^[18] and feudal lords (seigneur) of the Roy family in France and Switzerland.^{[19][20][21][22]} While born Guillaume Le Roy, the usage of de Roy ("of Roy"), a nobiliary particle, signified hereditary nobility.^[23][24][1] Specifically, this was a claimed connection to a lineage of knights and the lord of a fief recognized by the monarch, rather than a simple descriptive surname which was a legal requirement to be a knight of the Templars.^[25][26][27] Medieval court scribes consistently translated vernacular names into Latin. Guillaume de Roy is recorded as Guillelmus de Roy, Templar of the Diocese of Soissons, by the scribes during the Trials of the Knights Templar.^[28]

After the Norman Conquest, the victorious Normans and their allies settled England and eventually formed the ruling class of nobles called Anglo-Normans.^[29][2] Le Roy, or Le Roi was a family name^[30] and also a title that was held by the kings of England & royal administration (such as: Norroy "North King" and Viceroy "In place of King").^[31][32][33] This is also seen with Anglo-Norman patronymic surnames like Fitzroy, from Fi(t)z meaning "son of" and Roy "king", denoting the name bearer as a "son of the king".^[34][35][36]

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, the language of the conquerors after 1066.^[37][38]

In Canada and in the United States, the descendants of the families of Roy and Le Roy,^[39] who immigrated to North America were granted a coat of arms by the Governor General of Canada.^[40][41][42]

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