Rory

Where Rory comes from

Anglicized form of Scottish Gaelic Ruairidh and Irish Ruairí (“red-haired king”), from Old Irish Ruaidrí (“red king”).
— Wiktionary's entry for Rory
  • Irish
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1933
    First appearance
    #3,642 among boys, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1948
    Rory Gallagher born
    Irish guitarist
  3. 1989
    Rory McIlroy born
    Northern Irish professional golfer
  4. 2025
    Peak, #199
    1,768 babies named Rory — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name.
  • A male given name from Irish.
  • A diminutive of the male given name Roderick.
  • A female given name from Irish.
  • A diminutive of the female given name Aurora.
Namesakes
  • Rory Gallagher · Irish guitarist, 1948–1995
  • Rory McIlroy · Northern Irish professional golfer, born 1989
  • Rory Culkin · American actor, born 1989
  • Rory Delap · Irish association football player, born 1976
  • Rory Cochrane · American actor, born 1972

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.