{"id":1532,"date":"2022-12-07T17:43:37","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2022-12-07T17:52:48","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:52:48","slug":"is-leroy-an-african-american-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Leroy An African American Name? (Explained)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This article reviews whether Leroy is a typically African American first name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I used census records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to see how historically popular the name was in black communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The more recent censuses don\u2019t publish full names for privacy reasons. So, I had to look for alternative sources to evaluate the popularity within the last twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The short answer is that Leroy has become a typically African American name in recent years. However, it wasn\u2019t a popular choice for black parents historically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_65 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#Was_Leroy_A_Black_Name_In_The_19th_And_Early_20th_Century\" title=\"Was Leroy A Black Name In The 19th And Early 20th Century?\">Was Leroy A Black Name In The 19th And Early 20th Century?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#1870\" title=\"1870\">1870<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#1900\" title=\"1900\">1900<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#1940\" title=\"1940\">1940<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#Leroy_In_The_1960s_and_Early_1970s\" title=\"Leroy In The 1960s and Early 1970s\">Leroy In The 1960s and Early 1970s<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#Is_Leroy_A_Typically_African_American_First_Name_Currently\" title=\"Is Leroy A Typically African American First Name Currently?\">Is Leroy A Typically African American First Name Currently?<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#What_about_New_Hampshire\" title=\"What about New Hampshire?\">What about New Hampshire?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#Why_were_there_so_few_schools_in_this_survey\" title=\"Why were there so few schools in this survey?\">Why were there so few schools in this survey?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#The_challenge_of_using_high_school_photos\" title=\"The challenge of using high school photos\">The challenge of using high school photos<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/#Other_Names\" title=\"Other Names\">Other Names<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Was_Leroy_A_Black_Name_In_The_19th_And_Early_20th_Century\"><\/span>Was Leroy A Black Name In The 19<sup>th<\/sup> And Early 20<sup>th<\/sup> Century?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To review whether Leroy was common amongst African Americans in the 19<sup>th<\/sup> and early 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries, I looked at three federal censuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1870 federal census was the first after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. This was the first census that recorded all African Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1870\"><\/span>1870<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There were 8,622 residents in America named Leroy in the 1870 census.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 1870 census takers marked residents as either white, black, or mixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I\u2019m researching African Americans in the 1870 census, I always include the latter two categories. The census takers were not always correct in how they categorized non-white residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were 797 residents recorded as black and 132 as mixed. The exclusively black proportion was about 9% and the two categories together came to 11%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1900\"><\/span>1900<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>By the turn of the century, the total number had grown to over forty-two thousand people (42,488 to be exact).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mixed category was dropped in this census. The black percentage was about ten percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1940\"><\/span>1940<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/1940-census.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/1940-census.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/1940-census-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>processing the 1940 census<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>By 1940, the total number had jumped to over 176 thousand people (176,696).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The number of black residents was nearly 36 thousand people (35,771). This represented twenty percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, the black percentage doubled in the period from 1900 to 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My conclusion is that Leroy was not a common name amongst African Americans in the late 19<sup>th<\/sup> and early 20<sup>th<\/sup> centuries. However, it grew significantly in popularity towards the mid-20<sup>th<\/sup> century.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Leroy_In_The_1960s_and_Early_1970s\"><\/span>Leroy In The 1960s and Early 1970s<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A research study used <a href=\"https:\/\/dataverse.harvard.edu\/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910\/DVN\/TYJKEZ&amp;version=1.3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mortgage applications from 2007<\/a> to identify the breakdown of first names by ethnicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can guess that most of the applicants were aged from thirty to fifty. So, the numbers represent people born in the 1960s and early 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were 621 people named Leroy who applied for a mortgage. This was the ethnic breakdown:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>White: 69%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Black: 25%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hispanic: 4%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Compared to the historic census numbers in the previous section, the black percentage was a little higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it was still only one-quarter of the total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_Leroy_A_Typically_African_American_First_Name_Currently\"><\/span>Is Leroy A Typically African American First Name Currently?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/high-school-graduation.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/high-school-graduation.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/high-school-graduation-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>Several online archives have collected thousands of high school yearbooks from the early 1900s up to 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I used Ancestry.com for my research. First, I ran name searches on three southern states with a significant black population:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Georgia<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Louisiana<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mississippi<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I used different time frames between 2001 and 2016. I wanted to get at least fifteen students with the name. That meant I had to use different starting points for different states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The table below is the summary of my review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The column headed \u201cLeroy\u201d was the total number of students with the name that I found across the schools with uploaded yearbooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table alignfull is-style-stripes\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>State<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Schools<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>&#8220;Leroy&#8221;<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Black<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Georgia<\/td><td>14<\/td><td>15<\/td><td>87%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Louisiana<\/td><td>17<\/td><td>18<\/td><td>100%<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Mississippi<\/td><td>13<\/td><td>15\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/td><td>80%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Leroy was an exclusively male name in these search results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was one Asian student and one white student named Leroy in the Georgia results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you can see, the name Leroy was far more likely to belong to African American students in these three states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>My conclusion is that Leroy has become a typically African American first name in recent years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_about_New_Hampshire\"><\/span>What about New Hampshire?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To balance this survey, I also looked at a state with a low black population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I searched the New Hampshire yearbooks from 2001 to 2016 for anyone named Leroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were two teachers (white) with the name in the search results. But no students turned up!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/new-hampshire-stamp.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/new-hampshire-stamp.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/new-hampshire-stamp-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_were_there_so_few_schools_in_this_survey\"><\/span>Why were there so few schools in this survey?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there are more than seventeen schools in Louisiana (there are 558 to be exact).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But many schools don\u2019t have yearbooks available online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second column in the table shows the number of schools that came up in the results when I searched for the name Leroy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s also possible that a school has a yearbook online but has nobody by the name of Leroy. That means the school doesn\u2019t get counted in this survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_challenge_of_using_high_school_photos\"><\/span>The challenge of using high school photos<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019ve looked at historic census records in the U.S., you\u2019ll know that ethnicity is one of the questions that people are asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This means that the census archives can be searched by ethnicity as well as specific names. However, I could only search the high school yearbooks by student names and school locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, how did I identify African Americans from people of other heritage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, the recent high school yearbooks have photographs of the students. I did it by eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m not going to be right with every pick. So, treat these numbers as an estimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Other_Names\"><\/span>Other Names<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re looking for analysis of a similar name, check out our review of whether <a href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leon-an-african-american-name\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1511\">Leon is a typically African American first name<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article reviews whether Leroy is a typically African American first name. I used census records from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to see how historically popular the name was in black communities. The more recent censuses don\u2019t publish full names for privacy reasons. So, I had to look for alternative sources to &#8230; <a title=\"Is Leroy An African American Name? (Explained)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/is-leroy-an-african-american-name\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Is Leroy An African American Name? (Explained)\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1534,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exploreblackheritage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}