Fairy
Feminine · “enchantment”
A fairy was originally the enchantment and not the creature. The Old French faerie meant magic, or the state of being under it, or the country where it came from — and English narrowed the word to a small winged person only in the modern period.
How old is the name Fairy?
Fairy first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Fairy alive today was born around 1923, making them about 102 years old. About 500 people named Fairy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fairy most popular?
Fairy peaked in 1883, reaching #615 nationally. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From faerie to Fairy
The story of Fairy
The small glittering fairy is a Victorian invention. Earlier English fairies are human-sized, dangerous, and best not discussed by name; the wings arrive with book illustration and the stage. That change of register is visible in the naming record: Fairy appears as a girl's name in the eighteen-eighties, when the word still had some weight to it, and stops being given as the word slides toward the nursery. Word names live or die on what the word means at the time, and this one is a clean example of a name outliving its word's dignity.
Meaning
enchantment
The Old French word is an abstract noun about magic, built on the fays who worked it. The narrowing to an individual creature is late, and the winged version is a nineteenth-century image.
How the name formed
- faerie
- fairy
- Fairy
Pronouncing Fairy
FAIR-ee
Two syllables with the weight at the front, said exactly like the word.
Nicknames for Fairy
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 191875 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #615reached in 1883
- Change vs 2019
- 0.0%5 in 2024, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Fairys among us
people named Fairy are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Fairy sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Everyone can spell it and say it on first hearing.
- Fay is a ready short form and a standing name in its own right.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the earliest years of the count.
- The word has moved firmly into the nursery, and the name arrives with it.
- In some English-speaking countries the word is also a slur, which the name did not ask for.
- It reads unmistakably as a name of the nineteenth century.
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Fairy
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Fairys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Fairy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Fairy in 2025?
- Fairy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Fairy with classmates?
- Fairy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More F names
The most-given names starting with F, all years combined.
Frances#318 · Florence#391 · Faith#254 · Felicia#5554 · Fannie#3342 · Faye#514 · Flora#607 · Freda#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Fairy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Fairy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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