Guy Fawkes mask.

Guy (/ɡaɪ/ ghy, French: [ɡi]) is a masculine given name derived from an abbreviated version of a Germanic name that began either with witu, meaning wood, or wit, meaning wide. In French, the letter w became gu and the name became Guy, Gui or Guido. In Latin, the name was written as Wido. It was a popular name in Normandy and was used in England as well after the Norman Conquest. The name was popularized by romantic ballads about the dragon-slaying, giant-fighting folk hero Guy of Warwick. Guy Fawkes and the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot later made the name synonymous with treachery in England. Effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned every year on Guy Fawkes Night in the United Kingdom. By the early 19th century, the tradition led to Guy being a term in England for a poorly dressed man. In the United States, guy became slang for an everyman. Its use for characters by Sir Walter Scott in the 1815 novel Guy Mannering and by Charlotte Yonge in her 1853 novel The Heir of Redclyffe popularized the name in the United States. In recent years, Guy Fawkes masks have symbolized resistance to tyranny. Unrelated to this, Guy is also an Anglicization of the Hebrew name Hebrew: גיא, romanized:Gai, which means "ravine".

Usage

Guy was among the top 1,000 names for boys in the United States between 1880 and 2006 and was among the top 100 names for American boys between 1880 and 1901. It was among the 1,000 most popular names for boys in France between 1900 and 1990 and was a top 100 name for French boys between 1906 and 1970. It has been among the top 1,000 names for boys in the United Kingdom since 1996.

People

Religious figures

Nobility

Sports

Other

Fictional characters

  • The Guy, a character in the film Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
  • Guy, a character from the video game Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
  • Guy, a character from the Final Fight and Street Fighter series
  • Guy, a character in The Croods franchise
  • Guy, one of the four main player characters in Final Fantasy II
  • Guy, a hero of the First Doom Island War in the Lufia series
  • Guy, the protagonist of the 2021 film Free Guy
  • Guy of Gisbourne, a villain in the Robin Hood legend
  • Guy of Warwick, a legendary English hero
  • [Guy Emechebe], a legendary Igbudu Ide Worldwide
  • Guy Caballero, a character in the Canadian sketch comedy TV series SCTV
  • Guy Cecil, one of the main characters in the video game Tales of the Abyss
  • Guy Crouchback, the main protagonist in Sword of Honour
  • Guy Diamond, a character in Trolls: The Beat Goes On!
  • Guy Fleegman, a character in Galaxy Quest
  • Guy Forcas, a character in the 2009 Ubisoft game Anno 1404
  • Guy Francon, a character in the novel The Fountainhead
  • Guy Gagné, a character in Turbo
  • Guy Gardner, a DC Comics character
  • Guy Germaine, a character in The Mighty Ducks franchise
  • Guy Haines, the main protagonist of the 1951 Hitchcock murder mystery film Strangers on a Train
  • Guy Hamdon, the main protagonist of the Australian animated series SheZow
  • Guy Hastings, a character in the series Alcatraz
  • Guy LeDouche, the name used for the Takeshi's Castle character Junji Inagawa on that series' American parody/adaptation MXC
  • Guy Malton, from C. J. Sansom's Matthew Shardlake novels
  • Guy Marriott, spy in the Australian radio serial Undercover
  • Guy Montag, a character in the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451
  • Guy Noir, a character in A Prairie Home Companion
  • Guy Patterson, a character in That Thing You Do!
  • Guy Secretan, a character in the British sitcom Green Wing
  • Guy Smiley, a Muppet character from Sesame Street
  • Guy Spelunky, the main character from the video game Spelunky
  • Guy Thierrault, the second Marvel Comics supervillain known as Flag-Smasher
  • Might Guy, a character from the anime/manga series Naruto
  • Guy Am-I, a character from the Netflix series Green Eggs and Ham

See also