Comments (Meaning / History Only)
Wendy can also be a diminutive of Wendel (masculine), Wendela, or Wendla. In Stephen King's book "The Shining" Wendy was a nickname for Winifred but this appears to be a stretch.
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The name Wendy is recorded as a parish in the English county of Cambridgeshire as far back as 1086. It was twinned with the nearby parish Shingay in 1957 as Shingay cum Wendy. Wendy lies near the river Cam, in England still today. Wendy parish was recorded during the time of William The Conqueror, King. The name as transliterated “Wendi” is also recorded as the name of a respected Chinese Emporer (Wendi) of ancient times. It is not a new-name.
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This name is also a diminutive for "Wendeline".
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I think the name explanation could be clearer. James Barrie had a literary friend WE Henley, whose four year old daughter Margaret called Barrie her 'fwendy-Wendy'. Margaret died at five and Barrie used the pet name as a memorial to her. It was after the name was used in Peter Pan that it caught on, but its earlier occasional use may have contributed to its acceptance both by Barrie and his readers. A name, or any word, may have more than one impetus leading to its acceptance. Linda is another example.
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My name is Wendy also. There is a parish in Cambridgeshire called Shingay cum Wendy. The separate parishes of Shingay and Wendy amalgamated in 1957 but the parish of Wendy had 17 inhabitants in 1086. Here is a link to the history. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol8/pp135-142
That gives the name much more significance and raises the level of seriousness than just the Peter Pan and Wendy connection.
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That gives the name much more significance and raises the level of seriousness than just the Peter Pan and Wendy connection.
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In many first name books, the name Wendy is thought to mean "motherly" or "caring", because in the story of Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, the character Wendy Darling is referred to by the Lost Boys as "Mother", rather than "Wendy", because she is seen by them as the only motherly figure they have ever had. Other sources suggest the name Wendy could have originated as a diminutive of Gwendolen, which means "fair" or "white"; some sources also regard Gwendolen and Wendy to mean "white bow" or "white circle", the latter referring to the moon. Despite this, Wendy was not used as a first name officially until the beginning of the 20th Century, when J. M. Barrie's book Peter Pan was released, so it is more likely that the name was totally invented by J. M. Barrie, but with possible influences from Gwendolen, alternatively, in other sources, the name Wendy is also thought to mean "friend" or "friendly", this meaning originated from Barrie's close young friend, the 4 year-old Margaret Henley, who referred to Barrie as her "friendy-Wendy", which gave Barrie the name Wendy the idea for his main female protagonist in the book, Wendy Darling. :)
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I don't think James Barrie invented the name per se, I think he just popularised it.
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I just searched the British births, marriages and deaths register (which begins in 1837) and found three Wendys born at least forty years before 1904, when Barrie's play was first staged. So clearly it was used as a name before then, though not very often. I'm also inclined to think it's a contraction of Gwendolen - though possibly it's from Anglo-Saxon wendan, 'to make one's way'.
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I am really skeptical that there were any female Wendys born before Barrie's play, especially as a full name.
Pie below says he or she found "at least three" Wendys born before 1904 in the British births, marriages, and deaths register. From looking at that register as it appears today on Ancestry.com, I think "Pie" was only looking at the index and did not look at the original records.
In that index as of today there is only one person with Wendy as a first name --"Wendy Edmunda Petley", born in Camberwell in 1855. The handwriting of the original record is bad, and Ancestry now gives "Unity" as an alternative reading, which may have been suggested by a descendant of that woman.
There are four records before 1904 that have Wendy as a middle name. They are:
"Georgina Wendy Poulton", born 1855. When you click on the original printed index, the middle name is clearly "Weedy", not "Wendy".
"Margaret We?dy Taylor" (printed with the question mark in Ancestry.com), born in 1886, is also clearly "Weedy" in the original index.
The last two middle name Wendys are almost surely not female, but male. Although sex is not specifically designated in this data set, this is over 95% sure because of the first names:
John Wendy A. Taylor was born in 1879 in Keynsham, Somerset County.
Cecil Wendy Chapman was born in 1895 in Braintree, Essex County. (Cecil was regularly used as a female first name in the late 19th and early 20th century USA, but not in England.)
The use of Wendy as a middle name for these two men is probably from the very rare English surname Wendy. Thomas Wendy (1500-1560) was a royal physician to King Henry VIII and a member of Parliament :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wendy
A later Thomas Wendy (1614-1673) was also a member of Parliament. As both of the Thomas Wendys represented Cambridgeshire, the surname is probably derived from the same place name in Cambridgeshire which is already mentioned in the comments.
I have found one very clear example of a man with Wendy as a first name in England before 1904: Wendy Oxford, who in the 1851 UK census is listed as a carpenter who was an inmate of a poorhouse in Plymouth. The index to deaths has an entry for Wendy Oxford in Plymouth in 1853. This is surely the same person and with two different records giving the same first name we can be pretty sure Mr. Oxford went by Wendy as his first name in later life even if he wasn't born with the name. But this is a man, not a woman.
I am also skeptical that Wendy has anything to do with Gwendoline. The index to the 1881 English census includes three female Wendys. If you look at the original record, one of them, Wendy June Bugby, looks as if someone tried to cross out "Wendy". The other two are "Wendy Amy Mence", where the original record is actually illegible to me (the census taker obviously first wrote "W. Amy Mence" and then tried to squeeze in the full first name later), and "Wendy Scuffam", where the original record looks to me to read "Weney", not "Wendy". Even if Mence and Scuffam were really called Wendy, though, there are links on Ancestry.com to family genealogical records for both of them showing that their full given names were Winifred, not Gwendoline.
P.S. I had not seen the post by Birkensee below when I wrote the above. I am just really skeptical about a list like that without being able to see the original records. I have seen scores of examples in the index on Ancestry.com of indexers interpreting handwriting in old documents to as modern names they are familiar with, and then when I look at the original document that's not what it is. I am especially skeptical that there really was someone named "Wendy Gail" in England in 1510, as that puts two modern names together at a point in history when middle names were almost nonexistent.
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Pie below says he or she found "at least three" Wendys born before 1904 in the British births, marriages, and deaths register. From looking at that register as it appears today on Ancestry.com, I think "Pie" was only looking at the index and did not look at the original records.
In that index as of today there is only one person with Wendy as a first name --"Wendy Edmunda Petley", born in Camberwell in 1855. The handwriting of the original record is bad, and Ancestry now gives "Unity" as an alternative reading, which may have been suggested by a descendant of that woman.
There are four records before 1904 that have Wendy as a middle name. They are:
"Georgina Wendy Poulton", born 1855. When you click on the original printed index, the middle name is clearly "Weedy", not "Wendy".
"Margaret We?dy Taylor" (printed with the question mark in Ancestry.com), born in 1886, is also clearly "Weedy" in the original index.
The last two middle name Wendys are almost surely not female, but male. Although sex is not specifically designated in this data set, this is over 95% sure because of the first names:
John Wendy A. Taylor was born in 1879 in Keynsham, Somerset County.
Cecil Wendy Chapman was born in 1895 in Braintree, Essex County. (Cecil was regularly used as a female first name in the late 19th and early 20th century USA, but not in England.)
The use of Wendy as a middle name for these two men is probably from the very rare English surname Wendy. Thomas Wendy (1500-1560) was a royal physician to King Henry VIII and a member of Parliament :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wendy
A later Thomas Wendy (1614-1673) was also a member of Parliament. As both of the Thomas Wendys represented Cambridgeshire, the surname is probably derived from the same place name in Cambridgeshire which is already mentioned in the comments.
I have found one very clear example of a man with Wendy as a first name in England before 1904: Wendy Oxford, who in the 1851 UK census is listed as a carpenter who was an inmate of a poorhouse in Plymouth. The index to deaths has an entry for Wendy Oxford in Plymouth in 1853. This is surely the same person and with two different records giving the same first name we can be pretty sure Mr. Oxford went by Wendy as his first name in later life even if he wasn't born with the name. But this is a man, not a woman.
I am also skeptical that Wendy has anything to do with Gwendoline. The index to the 1881 English census includes three female Wendys. If you look at the original record, one of them, Wendy June Bugby, looks as if someone tried to cross out "Wendy". The other two are "Wendy Amy Mence", where the original record is actually illegible to me (the census taker obviously first wrote "W. Amy Mence" and then tried to squeeze in the full first name later), and "Wendy Scuffam", where the original record looks to me to read "Weney", not "Wendy". Even if Mence and Scuffam were really called Wendy, though, there are links on Ancestry.com to family genealogical records for both of them showing that their full given names were Winifred, not Gwendoline.
P.S. I had not seen the post by Birkensee below when I wrote the above. I am just really skeptical about a list like that without being able to see the original records. I have seen scores of examples in the index on Ancestry.com of indexers interpreting handwriting in old documents to as modern names they are familiar with, and then when I look at the original document that's not what it is. I am especially skeptical that there really was someone named "Wendy Gail" in England in 1510, as that puts two modern names together at a point in history when middle names were almost nonexistent.
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In reference to the debate above regarding Biblical names: the Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Though there are Latin names in it, no part of it was originally in Latin.
Regarding the reference to the Domesday Book: you may be right about that but it might depend on who wrote it down and who read it. Some of those names are hard to make out. It's not uncommon even today for something to be mis-spelled or mis-read, or both.
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Regarding the reference to the Domesday Book: you may be right about that but it might depend on who wrote it down and who read it. Some of those names are hard to make out. It's not uncommon even today for something to be mis-spelled or mis-read, or both.
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There are several references to 'Wendy' as a first name on the LDS Genealogy website, The earliest being from England in 1524. The early references are almost certainly contractions of Gwendoline. There is also a village in Cambridgeshire, England with the name Wendy recorded in Domesday.
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If Audrey is a form of Etheldreda, then Wendy could be (whether in actuality or in retrospect, to give it some historical legitimacy) a form if Wendreda.
Like Etheldreda, who was her sister, Wendreda was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon saint associated with the east of England.
In the village of March, Cambridgeshire, there is an ancient church dedicated to St Wendreda.
Wen is a Celtic word meaning "white" that is still present in some English place names (such as Wendover, meaning "white waters") so Wendy probably does have white as its meaning, whether we associate it with Wendreda or with Gwendoline.
As a previous poster says, there is a place called Wendy in Cambridgeshire: it means, however, "island at a river bend" in Old English and I doubt it's connected with Wendreda.
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Like Etheldreda, who was her sister, Wendreda was a 7th century Anglo-Saxon saint associated with the east of England.
In the village of March, Cambridgeshire, there is an ancient church dedicated to St Wendreda.
Wen is a Celtic word meaning "white" that is still present in some English place names (such as Wendover, meaning "white waters") so Wendy probably does have white as its meaning, whether we associate it with Wendreda or with Gwendoline.
As a previous poster says, there is a place called Wendy in Cambridgeshire: it means, however, "island at a river bend" in Old English and I doubt it's connected with Wendreda.
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I haven't got any evidence of this, but logic suggests that a girl born or baptised in the parish of a church dedicated to St Wendelin (who was a male) might be given Wendy as a made-up name that was close to the church's name. That's where I would start looking for pre-JM Barrie Wendys.
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Wendy also has a Biblical meaning: Wanderer in the Footsteps of the Lord.
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Excuse me, but how can a name which does not occur in the Bible have a "Biblical meaning?" Personally I'm still waiting for the evidence that Wendy was used as a female given name (as opposed to unofficial nickname) before Barrie's play.
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Let me clarify the comment above: The Bible is made up of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages. Example: although the name "Candace" isn't mentioned in the Bible, it's Latin which traces back to the Bible. Wendy isn't mentioned in the Bible, but what does that matter? The names used in the Bible and what not are translated, and do derive from different names and/or usages.
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The above comment doesn't make any sense. Candace is in the bible, Wendy is not.
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Maybe Candace is in the Bible; but it is also true that names develop and derive from different names and usages. And the Bible contains Greek, Hebrew and Latin. Example: the Latin name "Quintus" isn't mentioned in the Bible, but it does have a root.
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Wendy is not in the Bible and therefore cannot have a biblical meaning. There is no evidence, furthermore, that the name was used before J.M. Barrie's play was written, except perhaps as a nickname. Names that have "roots" in the Bible are not the same as names that appear in the Bible.
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