From an English place name meaning 'rye hill', from Old English 'ryge' (rye) and 'hyll' (hill).
Royle is a name of English origin that began life as a topographic surname before crossing into given-name territory. Its roots lie in Old English, likely derived from ryge-hyll — "rye hill" — referring to a hillside where rye grain was cultivated. Place names of this type were extremely common in the Anglo-Saxon and early Norman periods, as settlers identified themselves by the land features surrounding their homes.
Several small localities in the north of England, particularly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, carry the Royle name, and families from those areas adopted it as a hereditary surname by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. As a given name, Royle sits in the tradition of English surname-names that gained favor as forenames in the Victorian era and continued into the twentieth century, particularly in working-class northern English communities. It carries the sturdy, no-nonsense quality associated with names from that tradition.
The British comedian Steve Coogan popularized the name in a very different register through his mockumentary series The Royle Family, which aired from 1998 to 2012 — a portrait of a working-class Manchester family that became a beloved piece of British comedy canon, embedding the name deeply in popular cultural memory. In contemporary usage Royle is rare enough to read as distinctive rather than obscure, with a grounded, Anglo-Saxon character that contrasts pleasantly with more elaborate or imported name styles. It ages well — equally plausible on a Lancashire farmer of the 1850s and a contemporary child.