Rory
Meaning
red king
The story
Rory carries a king in it. The Irish Ruaidrí joins ruadh, "red," to rí, "king," and its most famous bearer was Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, anglicised Rory O'Connor, who ruled from 1166 as the last High King of a still-independent Ireland before the Norman invasion undid the title. As a given name in America it arrived late and grew in two waves: a first push from the 1940s (591) into the 1950s (3,844), then a much larger modern one, from about 3,000 in the 1990s to 11,000 in the 2010s and roughly 14,000 so far this decade. It travels easily as a short, bright, unisex sound, at home on a girl or a boy, and it needs no nickname because it already is one, the pet form of Roderick and Ruaidrí both.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Rory peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
48 people · the #68,557 first name in Brazil · median age 42
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Rory
Most people given the name Rory in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Rory deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Rory truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Rory fits with your family’s names and surname.
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