Royce shows up 58 times in the pet registries at rank 1750, strongly male. The name is an anglicized surname derived from the Old French Rois (king), but its contemporary identity is almost entirely shaped by two associations: Rolls-Royce, the British luxury automobile manufacturer, and its use as a given name in African American communities where it carries strong associations with aspiration and dignity.
The Luxury Register
Naming a pet Royce is a statement about aspiration or irony depending on scale. A large, distinguished dog named Royce — a Doberman, a Weimaraner, an Irish Wolfhound — reads as sincere luxury branding. The same name on a Chihuahua reads as a joke about the gap between name and reality. Both work; the owner's intent is usually readable from the context. Bentley occupies exactly the same automotive-luxury register.
The Human Name Context
Royce as a given name has been consistently used in the US, particularly in Southern and African American naming traditions. The human name Royce has a genuine contemporary presence — not rare, not common, distinctly purposeful. Owners choosing it for a pet are usually drawn by the sound and the aspiration rather than any specific famous Royce.
Counter-Reading
Royce and Rolls-Royce are legally protected brand names in commercial contexts, which doesn't matter at all for pet naming but might produce a slight cognitive friction when the name appears in written contexts. For most pet owners, this is a completely irrelevant fact.