Faye
Masculine · Latin roots · “fairy (from Middle English fay)”
Faye is given to girls far more often — 72,142 girls against 518 boys since 1880. See Faye as a girl name
Faye is one syllable with an old word inside it: fay, the Middle English word for a fairy. It has a famous modern bearer in Faye Dunaway, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Network.
How old is the name Faye?
Faye first appears in US birth records in 1901 — 124 years ago. The typical Faye alive today was born around 1928, making them about 97 years old. About 100 people named Faye are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Faye most popular?
Faye peaked in 1901, reaching #1058 nationally. See the whole 1901 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From fata (Latin) to Faye
The story of Faye
Fay came into English from Old French in the Middle Ages, and the spelling Faye grew up beside it as a given name. It is easy to confuse with fey, but the two words are unrelated: fey comes from Old English fæge, 'doomed to die,' and drifted toward 'otherworldly' only much later, partly under the pull of fay. Faye Dunaway, the star of Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown, won her Academy Award for the 1976 film Network, playing a television executive who will put anything on the air for ratings.
Meaningscholars disagree
fairy (from Middle English fay)
Faye is usually traced to fay, 'fairy,' which came into English from Old French fae. It has also been used as a short form of Faith, and the two roads arrive at the same spelling.
How the name formed
- fataLatin
- faeOld French
- fayMiddle English
- Faye
Related forms: Fay
Pronouncing Faye
FAY
One syllable, rhyming with day; the final e is silent.
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
- 1901
- Most boys named
- 191520 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1058reached in 1901
- Change vs 1959
- +20.0%6 in 1964, 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.
Faye in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fay in English — spelling variant
Fayes among us
people named Faye 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
Faye 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
- One syllable, said the same way by every English speaker.
- Works as a first name or as a short middle name between longer ones.
- An old English word and a famous actress stand behind it.
- It will be spelled Fay or Fae as often as Faye, so expect to spell it out.
- It sounds exactly like fey, a word now meaning whimsical or otherworldly, and a few people will make the link.
- A very few boys are recorded with it; as a name long given to girls, it will read as feminine.
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Faye
Masculine · Latin roots
Frequently asked
- How many Fayes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Faye are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Faye in 2025?
- Faye is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Faye with classmates?
- Faye will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More F names
The most-given names starting with F, all years combined.
Frank#513 · Fred#1932 · Francis#420 · Frederick#435 · Floyd#2230 · Francisco#322 · Franklin#359 · Fernando#387
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Faye? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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