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 [ 2 syll. wen-dy, we-ndy ] The girl name Wendy is pronounced WEHNDiy KEY. Wendy's language of origin is Welsh, Germanic, and English, and it is predominantly used in Dutch, English, and German. The name was invented by the Scottish novelist J.M. Barrie for his classic children story and play Peter Pan (1904). The name was inspired by a real girl Margaret Henley, daughter of his friend; Margaret used to call Barrie 'my fwendy wendy' meaning 'my friend'. When Margaret died at the age of four in 1894, Barrie immortalized her in the story. Some scholars have suggested that Wendy could have been used as a pet form of Gwenda prior to Barrie's work. Variant forms of Wendy include Wenda (English) and Windy (English). In addition, Wendy is a pet form (Dutch, English, and German) of Wanda (English, German, and Polish). Wendy is also a pet form (Dutch, English, and German) of Gwendolen (English and Welsh). The short forms Wen (English) and Wend (English), and the spelling variants Wende (English), Wendee (English), Wendi (English), and Wendie (English) are other forms of the name. See also the related form, Gwenda (English). Wendy is a fairly popular baby name for girls. The name's popularity grew from the 1930s up to the 1960s; before that, it was of only very light use. At the peak of its usage in 1967, 0.654% of baby girls were named Wendy. Its ranking then was #32. The baby name has since suffered a steep decline in popularity. In 2008, it ranked at #458 with a usage of 0.033%, but it was nevertheless the most commonly used out of all girl names in its group. Baby names that sound like Wendy include Wendee (English), Wendi (English and German), Wendie (English), Wanda (English, German, and Polish), Wandi (English), Wandie (English), Wenda (English), Winda, Windy (English), Wonda (English), Wynette (Welsh), Waneta (English), Wend (English), Wende (English), Wyanet, and Juanita (Spanish). A famous person named Wendy is Wendy Carlos, Composer, born Walter Carlos, 14 November 1939, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. KEY: Pronunciation for Wendy: W as in "we (W.IY)" ; EH as in "Ed (EH.D)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)" ; D as in "dee (D.IY)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)"   |
