Wendy
Wendy is a given name generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.
 Wendy Darling drawn by Oliver Herford in The Peter Pan Alphabet | |
| Pronunciation | (/ˈwɛndi/) |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Language(s) | English |
| Origin | |
| Meaning | Welsh-white, holy Germanic-to wander, change, the Vandals |
| Other names | |
| Alternative spelling | Wendi |
| Related names | Gwendolyn, Gwen, Wendeline, Wendelinda, Winifred |
The name is found in United States records from the 19th century. The name Wendy appears twenty times in the index to the U.S. Census of 1880, but that may be misleading. In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615[1][2]. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century.[3] Its popularity in Britain as a feminine name is owed to the character Wendy Darling from the 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelization Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie.[4][5][6] Its popularity reached a peak in the 1960s, and subsequently declined.[7] The name was inspired by young Margaret Henley, daughter of Barrie's poet friend W. E. Henley. With the common childhood difficulty pronouncing Rs, Margaret reportedly used to call him "my fwiendy-wendy".[8][9]
Chinese women with the same or similar-sounding characters as their given names often anglicise their names as Wendi or Wendy (e.g. Wendi Deng, Wendy Kweh).
In Germany after 1986 the name Wendy became popular because it is the name of a magazine (targeted specifically at young girls) about horses and horse riding.
People
In film, television, and radio
- Wendy Beckett (1930–2018), British religious sister and art historian
- Wendy Bergen (1956–2017), American television journalist
- Wendy Calio (born 1977), American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer
- Wendy Craig (born 1934), English actress
- Wendy Greengross (1925–2012), English general practitioner and broadcaster
- Wendy Hiller (1912–2003), English actress
- Wendy Kaufman (born 1958), American television personality
- Wendie Malick (born 1950), American actress and former fashion model
- Wendy Mesley (born 1957), Canadian television journalist and reporter
- Wendy Padbury (born 1947), English actress
- Wendi Peters (born 1968), English actress
- Wendy Phillips (born 1952), American actress
- Wendy Richard (1943–2009), English actress
- Wendy Robie (born 1953), American actress
- Wendy Raquel Robinson (born 1967), American actress
- Wendie Jo Sperber (1958–2005), American actress
- Wendy Schaal (born 1954), American actress
- Wendy Stites (born 1949), Australian production and costume designer
- Wendy Tilby (born 1960), Canadian animator and director
- Wendy Toye (1917–2010), English director and actress
- Wendy Williams (1934–2019), English actress
- Wendy Williams (born 1964), American television and radio presenter, businesswoman, author, actress and media personality
- Wendy Williams (born 1974), American pornographic actress and model
In sports
- Wendy Brown (heptathlete), American heptathlete
- Wendy Cruz, Dominican Republic cyclist
- Wendy Fuller, Canadian diver
- Wendy Holdener, Swiss alpine skier
- Wendy Lucero, American diver
- Wendie Renard, French football player
- Wendy Richter, American wrestler
- Wendy Vereen (born 1966), American former sprinter
- Wendy Weinberg, American Olympic medalist swimmer
- Wendy Wyland (1964-2003), American diver
In the arts
- Wendy Bagwell (1925–1996), founding member and leader of the Southern gospel music and comedy trio Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters
- Wendy Carlos, American composer
- Wendy Chung, Hong Kong pop and C-Pop lyricist
- Wendy J. Fox, American author
- Wendy Holden (author, born 1961), British journalist and author
- Wendy Holden (author, born 1965), British chick-lit novelist
- Wendy James, Transvision Vamp's singer
- Wendy Mass (born 1967), American author, especially of young adult and children's novels
- Wendy Melvoin, musician and composer and twin sister of Susannah Melvoin
- Wendy Partridge, costume designer
- Wendy Pepper, fashion designer
- Wendy Pini, creator, artist and writer of the fantasy comic book universe Elfquest
- Wendy Shon, Korean singer and member of Red Velvet
- Wendy Sulca, Peruvian singer
- Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright
- Wendy Whelan, American ballet dancer and associate artistic director of New York City Ballet
- Wendy O. Williams, stripper turned punk rocker and leader of the Plasmatics
- Wendy Wilson, pop singer of Wilson Phillips fame and daughter of The Beach Boys singer, Brian Wilson
- Wendy Rose (born May 8, 1948) is a Hopi/Miwok writer.
Other
- Wendy Albano (died 2012), American woman who was murdered in Bangkok
- Wendy Chung, geneticist
- Wendy Davis, politician
- Wendy Davis, actress
- Wendi Deng, Chinese-born American businesswoman
- Wendy Fitzwilliam, Miss Universe 1998 from Trinidad and Tobago
- Wendy Lou (born 1962), Canadian statistician
- Wendy M. Masiello, United States Air Force officer
- Wendy L. Martinez, American statistician
- Wendi Michelle Scott (born 1975), American criminal convicted of abusing her daughter in a case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy
- Wendy Thomas (born 1961), daughter of fast food chain Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and the company's namesake
Fictional characters
- Wendy Christensen in Final Destination 3
- Wendy Corduroy in Gravity Falls
- Wendy Darling in Peter Pan
- Wendy Harris in the Super Friends cartoon and comic book
- Wendy Johnson in My Parents are Aliens
- Wendy O. Koopa, one of Bowser's Koopalings introduced in the video game Super Mario Bros. 3
- Wendy Marvell in Fairy Tail
- Wendy Peyser in American Horror Story: Asylum
- The first name of Agent Pleakley, a male alien character from Lilo & Stitch
- Wendy Rhoades, wife of Chuck Rhoades and a psychiatrist/performance coach at Axe Capital in Showtime series Billions
- Wendy Testaburger in South Park
- Winifred "Wendy" Torrance, one of the main characters in Stephen King's The Shining
- Wendy Winkle in The Cramp Twins
- Wendy Wu, the titular character of Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
- Wendy the Good Little Witch in Harvey Comics
- Wendy, a character in Bob the Builder
- Wendy, a playable character in the indie survival game Don't Starve and its sequel Don't Starve Together
- Wendy in How I Met Your Mother
- Wendy Wolf in Peppa Pig
References
- ""Made-Up" Names". Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources. 2015-04-15. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
- "Captain Wendy Oxford, Captain". geni_family_tree. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
- James Heath, John Phillips (1675). A Chronicle of the Late Intestine War in the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland (2nd ed.). London: J.C. for Thomas Basset. p. 480.
- Was the name Wendy invented for the book Peter Pan? at The Straight Dope
- Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, Dictionary of First Names, 1990
- "Before this, the name simply didn't exist! The History of the name "Wendy"". Archived from the original on June 27, 2001.
- http://www.babynames.co.uk/names/wendy/
- "The History of Wendy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-18. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
- Winn, Christopher (2005). I Never Knew That About England. Ebury Press. p. 4. ISBN 9780091902070.
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