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Fay

Most Poles have never met a Fay: only about fifteen women carry it, and hardly any girls get the name now. It comes from Latin, meaning fairy.

Fay Pronunciation

Fay is pronounced FAH-ih (/ˈfaɨ/).

Alive in 2025
15
Newborns 2025
<2
National rank
#12014

What Fay means

Where Fay comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Fay comes to English from Old French fae, and behind that word stands the Latin fata, the Fates who were thought to spin each human life. That root, from fatum meaning fate, slid over centuries toward the fairy of medieval story. By Middle English it meant a fairy.

In Arthurian legend the sorceress Morgan le Fay wears the word as a byname, le Fay meaning the fairy. Much later Fay Wray, born in 1907, gave the name a face on screen in King Kong in 1933. The spelling stays short. Three letters, one syllable.

There are no common diminutives here, and no cross-gender pair. Fay stands alone. In Polish the meaning lands as wróżka, the same small figure the Latin fata once named.

How many people are named Fay

1 in 1502922 women in Poland is named Fay. 15 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #12014 among female names.

People with the name Fay 2019 → 2025
15 +5 since 2019
2020 10 0
2021 11 +1
2022 11 0
2023 11 0
2024 15 +4
2025 15 0

Fay's popularity over time

Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.

hover a bar to explore
<2 newborns with the name Fay in 2025
below the publication floor that year

Fay as a middle name

Fay is a first name for 15 women in Poland and a middle name for another 21, a 42/58 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1569th, between Else (21) and Felicity (21).

As a first name
15
As a middle name
21
first name 42% middle name 58%

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