Skip to main content

Today's Poll: How do you pronounce Le Roy?

By Howard B. Owens
C. M. Barons

There appears to be disagreement even among LeRoyans as to the proper pronunciation. LeRoy Village Historian (former), Marian Russell, insisted that the pronunciation followed the French root, Luh - ROY. Le Roi refers to The King in the French language. ...While many residents prefer LEE-roy. If one relies on spelling as a guide, Le Roy is generally pronounced, Luh-ROI; Leroy, LEE-roy. Spelling follows usage, whether surname (Le Roy) or a given name (Leroy). In this case the town and village are named for Herman Le Roy, a New York City importer and land speculator who partnered in the purchase of 85,000 acres in WNY- known as the Triangle Tract.. All of which collapses under the weight of popular opinion as the poll indicates- though doubt and flexibility prevail.

Aug 9, 2013, 12:02pm Permalink
Howard B. Owens

The idea for the poll came from a conversation with Lynne Belluscio yesterday. She noted that unlike the pronunciations of Avon or Chili, where all the residents agree on the "mispronunciation," there is no agreed upon pronunciation for Le Roy. She also said there is document -- I forget now ... a deed document, or the like, from the earliest days of the village that spells out name phonetically and for Le Roy, on the document, it's LEE-Roy.

I always like the quip somebody shared with me when I first moved here: It's LEE-Roy if you live west of the creek, and La-Roy if you live to the east.

Aug 9, 2013, 12:11pm Permalink
Eric [Rick] von kramer

The fact that you have spelled it with a space, would clearly make it pronounced as the French would have. If you read the name Herman Le Roy most people would not pronounce it LEE-ROY

Aug 9, 2013, 12:45pm Permalink
Sean McKellar

I think that the rule of thumb is that north of Main St. it's pronounced "LEE ROY" and south of Main it's "LA ROY" or "LEH ROY". :-)

Aug 9, 2013, 6:53pm Permalink
Mardell Lamb

Remember when the tornado hit Corfu a few years ago? YNN was there reporting and pronounced it as "Cor-foo."

Whenever I drive through there (always minding my speed), I think in my head, "COR-FOO." (wink.)

Aug 10, 2013, 6:32pm Permalink

Authentically Local