The surname of the engineer who co-founded Rolls-Royce was Royce.
Sir Frederick Henry Royce was an English engineer and car designer whose reputation rested on meticulous mechanical design and exceptionally reliable engines. He began as an apprentice and later built an electrical and mechanical engineering business in Manchester before turning his attention to motor cars.
Royce’s partnership with Charles Rolls began after Rolls, a wealthy motoring pioneer and automobile dealer, became impressed by Royce’s early cars. In 1904, Royce and Rolls agreed to combine Royce’s engineering expertise with Rolls’s commercial and marketing skills. Their company, Rolls-Royce Limited, was formally established in 1906, with Royce serving as chief engineer and works director.
The name can cause a simple but understandable mistake: Rolls-Royce contains both founders’ surnames. Rolls was the aristocratic businessman and driver; Royce was the engineer whose designs supplied the technical foundation. Claude Johnson, an important early executive, also helped build the company but was not one of the two names in the marque.