Meaning & Origin
A female given name.
Wendy is a girl's and boy's baby name of Welsh origin, believed to have been coined — or at least popularized — by J.M. Barrie in his play Peter Pan (1904), inspired by the childhood nickname "fwendy-wendy" used by a friend's daughter. It may also derive from the Welsh Gwendolen, from gwen ("white, fair").
Wendy peaked in the U.S. top 20 girls' names in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It has a playful, literary origin unlike almost any other mainstream name — born in Neverland, grown up in American suburbia, and now carrying a retro charm that feels genuinely fresh again.