Thuy
Feminine · “water”
Thuy is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,076 girls against 17 boys since 1880.
Thuy is the Vietnamese word for water, and it belongs to a pattern that Vietnamese naming follows closely: daughters are named from the natural world and sons from the moral one. A family with several children will often have a Water, an Orchid and a Spring on one side of the table and a Loyalty, a Success and a Courage on the other.
How old is the name Thuy?
Thuy first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Thuy alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 1,000 people named Thuy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Thuy most popular?
Thuy peaked in 1983, reaching #1303 nationally. See the whole 1983 chart.
Where it comes from
From a Chinese-derived word for water in Vietnamese to Thuy
The story of Thuy
The division is real and it is old. Traditional Vietnamese naming draws women's names from a fixed and beautiful vocabulary — flowers, seasons, gems, weather, water — and men's from abstractions about conduct: virtue, ambition, righteousness, prosperity. It is not a rule anyone wrote down, and plenty of families ignore it, but it holds well enough that a Vietnamese speaker can usually guess the sex of a name they have never met. The habit says something uncomfortable about what each half of a household was being wished, and it has softened considerably in the last two generations without disappearing.
Meaning
water
The word comes from the Chinese-derived layer of Vietnamese vocabulary and is one of the standard elements in women's names. A closely related spelling means the blue-green of jade or of a kingfisher's back, and the two are distinguished in Vietnamese by a mark that American paperwork does not carry. So a Thuy in an American record may be a Water or a Jade-green, and the certificate cannot tell you which — only the family can.
How the name formed
- a Chinese-derived word for water in Vietnamese
- established as a standard element in women's names
- a near-identical spelling means jade-green
- brought to America with resettlement after the war
- the distinguishing mark is lost in American records
Related forms: Thuy · Thu · Shui
Pronouncing Thuy
TWEE
One syllable, closer to twee than to too-ee, with a tone that English cannot represent. English speakers regularly produce two syllables where there is one, and most bearers stop correcting it.
Nicknames for Thuy
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 198393 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1303reached in 1983
- Change vs 2008
- 0.0%5 in 2015, 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.
Thuy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Thuy in Vietnamese — same name
- Thu in Vietnamese — related form
- Shui in Chinese — related form
Thuys among us
people named Thuy 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
Thuy 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
- Four letters, and it carries a concrete meaning that a child can understand at once.
- It works for a daughter or a son, which the record confirms.
- It keeps a family's language visible without being unpronounceable in English.
- The English approximation lands on a word meaning excessively sweet, which is unfortunate and unavoidable.
- The mark that distinguishes water from jade-green cannot survive American paperwork.
- English speakers will attack the th and produce a sound the name does not contain.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Thuy to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Thuy? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Thuy
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Thuys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Thuy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Thuy in 2025?
- Thuy is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Thuy with classmates?
- Thuy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Thuy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Thuy and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle