Meaning and history
Fay comes partly from the English word fay, meaning “fairy,” which derives from Middle English faie, “magical” or “enchanted,” and ultimately from Latin fata, “the Fates,” through Old French. The name appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s chronicles in Morgan le Fay, and it may also sometimes be a short form of Faith. It has been used as a feminine given name since the 19th century, while the rarer older masculine usage is probably derived from a surname.
20062006: 27 births, rank #5,086
2007: 26 births, rank #5,377
2008: 20 births, rank #6,559
2009: 26 births, rank #5,378
2010: 22 births, rank #5,977
20112011: 26 births, rank #5,207
2012: 30 births, rank #4,707
2013: 26 births, rank #5,143
2014: 34 births, rank #4,269
2015: 25 births, rank #5,288
20162016: 45 births, rank #3,464
2017: 26 births, rank #5,045
2018: 39 births, rank #3,789
2019: 38 births, rank #3,851
2020: 33 births, rank #4,169
20212021: 43 births, rank #3,553
2022: 38 births, rank #3,893
2023: 34 births, rank #4,191
2024: 46 births, rank #3,395
20252025: 39 births, rank #3,780
Fay moved from #971 to #994 for girls between 1967 and 1968. Its highest annual birth count came in 1926, with 722 births.