How popular is the baby name Fay in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Fay.

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Popularity of the baby name Fay


Posts that mention the name Fay

Ontario siblings named after Maple Leafs players

Toronto Maple Leafs logo

Misty and Dave Amey of Kingston, Ontario, have five children — all of whom were named (in part) after Toronto Maple Leafs players.

Here are the five siblings, from oldest to youngest:

  1. Justice Tucker Jade (girl) — “Tucker” after right wing Darcy Tucker
  2. Angel McCabe Fay (girl) — “McCabe” after defenseman Bryan McCabe
  3. Domi Austin John Paul (boy) — “Domi” after right wing (and enforcer) Tahir “Tie” Domi
  4. Colton Orr Dave (boy) — both “Colton” and “Orr” after right wing (and enforcer) Colton Orr
  5. Kadri Lee (girl, born in October of 2016) — “Kadri” after center Nazem Kadri

Dad was the one who came up with the hockey-inspired names. He noted: “Those guys, they don’t get all the recognition but they do the grittiest, the grindiest work out on the ice, night in and night out.”

Sources:

Image: Adapted from 2016 NHL All-Star Game by Brandon Zeman under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Names from WHER, America’s first all-female radio station

Dot Fisher of the radio station WHER, (1957)
Dot Fisher of WHER

Memphis-based radio station WHER (1430 AM), which was run almost entirely by women, went on the air in October of 1955. It was billed as America’s “First All-Female Radio Station.”

The station was created and funded by legendary record producer Sam Phillips — the guy who discovered Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, among others.

WHER’s original staff included Sam’s wife Rebecca (Becky) along with seven other women: Barbara Gurley, Donna Rae Johnson, Dorothy “Dot” Fisher, Dotty Abbott, Fay Bussell, Phyllis Stimbert, and Roberta Stout.

Six of these eight ladies were on-air personalities with their own programs, each of which emphasized “some particular subject of interest to housewives” according to a 1957 source.

Which of the original WHER names do you like best?

  • Barbara
  • Donna
  • Dorothy/Dotty
  • Fay
  • Phyllis
  • Rebecca
  • Roberta

(Dotty is usually a nickname for Dorothy, so I combined them above.)

Vida Jane Butler, who joined WHER later in the ’50s, was known on-air as “Janie Joplin.” She’d been told that Vida “was considered too old-fashioned and too Southern for WHER,” and the data backs it up: the name Vida was indeed out of fashion and associated with the south at that time. These days, though, Vida is picking up steam — particularly in California. Janie, on the other hand, saw peak usage in the mid-20th century and has been in decline ever since.

Sources:

Image: © 1957 Broadcast News

Which “Mod Generation” sticker name do you like best?

mod generation stickers

In 1969, dozens of “Mod Generation” stickers — each of which featured a drawing of a young person, and a first name — were distributed inside packs of Topps chewing gum.

Female names used on the stickers included Alice, Ann, Barbara, Betty, Connie, Diane, Donna, Dotty, Ellen, Esther, Fay, Frances, Gloria, Helen, Jackie, Joan, Judy, Lois, Marie, Mary, Millie, Minda, Nancy, Natalie, Phyllis, Rose, Shelly, and Susan.

mod generation stickers

Male names used on the stickers included Barry, Bert, Bill, Charlie, Chris, Dave, Don, Fred, George, Herb, Irv, Jerry, Joe, John, Larry, Louis, Michael, Paul, Pete, Ray, Richard, Roy, Teddy, and Tony.

mod generation stickers

While of these female and male names do you like most? How about least?

Sources: 1969: “Mod Generation” Stickers, Mod Generation – 1969

Kilcher family names: Atz, Farenorth, Jewel, Q’orianka

Atz Kilcher in the reality TV series "Alaska: The Last Frontier" (2011-2022)
Atz Kilcher in “Alaska: The Last Frontier“

I don’t watch a lot of television, but I’m visiting my father right now and he’s got his TV on all the time, so I haven’t been able to help it lately. :)

The other day I was walking past the TV and heard “Alaska” — a place I’ve long wanted to visit. So I stopped to see what was on. Soon I was hearing names like Atz, Atz Lee, and Otto.

Who were these people? Where did they get such interesting names?

Turns out it was a reality show called Alaska: The Last Frontier, and the cast members were part of the locally famous Kilcher family.

Atz and Otto are the sons of homesteaders Yule Farenorth Kilcher (b. 1913) and Ruth Kilcher (b. 1920). Yule and Ruth left Switzerland for Alaska in the early 1940s. Yule went on to serve in the Alaska State Senate during the 1960s.

Yule wasn’t born “Yule Farenorth.” He was originally Julius Jakob (pronounced YOO-lee-us YAH-kob) but he changed his first and middle names after immigrating.

Yule and Ruth had a total of eight children — two boys and six girls. Here are the names:

  1. Mairiis
  2. Wurtila Dora (Wurzy)
  3. Linda Fay
  4. Attila Kuno (Atz)
  5. Sunrise Diana Irene
  6. Edwin Otto
  7. Stella Vera Septina (Bonnie)
  8. Catkin Melody

Many of the above also gave their own children distinctive names, such as Cornelius, Davin, Ecaterina, Gawan, Olga and Saskia.

One of Atz’s children is pop singer Jewel Kilcher, a.k.a. Jewel. Her popularity in the mid-1990s helped push the baby name Jewel back into the U.S. top 1,000 in 1997:

  • 1999: 453 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 557th]
  • 1998: 490 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 516th]
  • 1997: 330 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 665th]
  • 1996: 168 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 1,098th]
  • 1995: 154 baby girls named Jewel [ranked 1,141st]

And, moving forward another generation, one of Wurzy’s grandchildren is actress Q’orianka Kilcher, whose appearance in the movie The New World (2005) made Qorianka a one-hit wonder on the baby name charts in 2006.

(Q’orianka told the press that her name means “golden eagle” in Quechua, and it does seem to be based on the Quechua words for “gold,” quri, and “eagle,” anca, but I’m not sure whether it’s a legit Quechua name or a modern invention.)

So do any of you guys watch Alaska: The Last Frontier regularly? Have I missed any other good Kilcher names?

Image: Screenshot of Alaska: The Last Frontier