Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Spelling: Fay or Faye?

35 replies

Kyrie · 01/03/2010 16:40

Struggling for a girl's name but think I might go for Fay/e.

Which spelling do you prefer Fay or Faye and what do you think of the name generally. Thanks.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Mouk · 03/09/2022 19:12

Faye

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 03/09/2022 17:29

Fay/e is 12 now and probably slamming her bedroom door in annoyance at this very moment. Or messaging her friend about Harry Styles.

abovedecknotbelow · 03/09/2022 17:29

How do even find a ten year old thread?

Rhaenys · 03/09/2022 17:26

Faye for a first name, Fay for a middle.

LucyLoopyLu · 03/09/2022 17:12

I think I slightly prefer Faye and would have spelt it that way if someone asked me to write it down (before seeing this).

KirstenBlest · 03/09/2022 16:36

I much prefer Fay, but Faye seems to be used more.
I remember Fay Lucas on Grange Hill, and there's Fay Weldon.

anotherpotoftea · 03/09/2022 16:24

I love it and have known people with both spellings so I don’t think there’s a ‘wrong’ answer!

RuthW · 03/09/2022 16:21

Lovely name.

Faye.

mogwa · 03/09/2022 13:04

Where is Fay a boy's name? Certainly not in the UK.
And why post this ten years late?

BestCatMumEver · 03/09/2022 12:38

Well thank fuck someone’s pointed this out 10 years too late.

BooksAndHooks · 03/09/2022 12:35

Faye, looks better and seems to be the more accepted spelling so less correcting people.

MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake · 03/09/2022 12:32

The OP from 2010 will be sure to take that on board.

Eoghain · 03/09/2022 12:30

Correction: Fay is a boy.

Eoghain · 03/09/2022 12:30

Correction:
The girl's name is spelled Faye. The spelling Fay is for a boy.
Just as, when you see the name Frances or Francis, you know the person is female or male, respectively. The same is true for Faye is a girl and Fay is a boy.

Eoghain · 03/09/2022 12:28

The girl's name is spelled Faye. The spelling Fay is for a boy.
Just as, when you see the name Frances or Francis, you know the person is female or male, respectively. The same is true for Faye is a girl and Faye is a boy.

juneybean · 03/03/2010 00:47

I prefer Fay.

mrsvwoolf · 03/03/2010 00:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

KatnKankles · 02/03/2010 23:36

My best friend is Fay but I also know a Faye. For some reason I much prefer Faye.. looks more feminine, in the same way as you have Katherine or Catherine.

It's definitely not in the creative spelling category. Unless of course you decided on Faiye or Faeye (Faeye actually looks quite nice now I look at it)...

AllieW · 02/03/2010 20:11

invented

AllieW · 02/03/2010 20:10

Yes, Fay is the original spelling. It was inventend in the 19th century from the vocabulary word 'fey' which means fairy. I like it both with and without the e but would probably lean more towards Fay.

Kyrie · 02/03/2010 17:29

I could be wrong but my research seems to say that Faye is a varient of Fay so Fay must be the 'original' and Faye the creatively spelt one.

OP posts:
CaptianPicardsPineapple · 02/03/2010 16:29

Either is fine but I reckon I'd go Faye.

crumpet · 02/03/2010 16:27

Interesting one - I am usually dead against "creative" spellings, but for some reason Faye looks right. Have no idea whether Faye is a more recent spelling or if they have always coexisted.

addictedtomn · 02/03/2010 16:24

is fay the original spelling? my name is xxxxx-Fay and every one always assumes its faye it was especially horrendous at school with teachers who couldn't remember or just didnt care, and then when i correct them, they say, well thats an unusual spelling of the name. in fact there is a joke in the family that when my dad (who is a notorious bad speller) went to register my birth he miss-spelt it and left the e off the end. when in fact it was done deliberately.

i would suggest that to give your dd n easy life you spell it faye

jellybeans · 02/03/2010 16:15

Faye much nicer.