The village was named after Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy, who had paid the area a visit in 1861.

[4] Henry M. Dunlap (1853–1938), Illinois farmer and state legislator, lived in Savoy.

[7] Savoy shares a border with the neighboring city of Champaign and is less than two miles from the site of the main campus of the University of Illinois.

The northern part of Savoy and a corridor along Dunlap Avenue are serviced by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.

U.S. Route 45 (Dunlap Avenue) runs north through Savoy into Champaign, Illinois becoming Neil Street.

The University of Illinois Willard Airport (KCMI) that serves East Central Illinois, with commercial airline service to Chicago O'Hare Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth provided by American Eagle, is located immediately south of Savoy.