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Fay
Origin
Word/name	French, Irish
Meaning	derived from the Old French "fage" or derived from Classical Irish "Ó Fathaigh" and "Ó Fiaich"
Region of origin	Normandy, Ireland
Other names
Variant form(s)	de Fay, du Fay, Fahey, Fahy, Faye, Fee, Foy, Fey, Fye.

Fay is an Irish surname that also arose independently in France. There are different theories about the origin and meaning of the surname.

Origin

French / Norman

The name may have originally derived from the Norman surname "de Fae", which has several possible origins. The first and oldest origin is locational, stemming from the Old French "fage", which is derived from the Latin "Fagus", referring to a "place of beech trees". Other claims are that Fae stems from the Old French "fae", meaning magical, enchanted, or otherworldly, or from the Anglo-French "fei" meaning faithfulness to a trust or promise; loyalty to a person; honesty, truthfulness.^[1] The name was introduced to England and Ireland in the 12th and 13th centuries through the Norman conquest and settlement of both regions.

The Viscounts De La Faye and Du Fai, from whom the later variants stem, originated in Sainte-Honorine-du-Fay in Normandy. The first recorded appearance of the name in England was Radulphus de Fae, who was granted a manor extension in Surrey by Henry II in 1154.^[2] The first appearance in Ireland was Richard de Fae, a knight who settled in the Lordship of Meath in 1219.^[3]

The Norman-derived variant of Fay is the most common origin of the name in Ireland, and is predominantly found in counties Westmeath, Cavan and Monaghan. However, the surname also arose independently in Ireland from the Anglicisation of two Gaelic surnames.^[4]

Irish

In Ireland, Fay may also represent Anglicised forms of the Gaelic surnames Ó Fiaich meaning 'descendant of Fiach' (a nickname meaning 'raven', but is sometimes mistranslated as 'Hunt' as a result of confusion with fiach, the modern spelling of fiadhach 'hunt') and Ó Fathaigh meaning 'descendant of Fathadh' (a personal name derived from fothadh 'base' or 'foundation', but is sometimes mistranslated as Green as a result of erroneous association with faithche 'lawn').^[5]

Other origins

The Serer surname Faye may also be spelled as Fay in Serer proper. It is unrelated to the Irish and French surname and pronounced differently.

Notable people

Notable people with the surname include:

Performers

Bill Fay (born 1943), English singer
Dorothy Fay (1915–2003), American actress
Faith Fay (born 1987), American actress
Frank Fay (American actor) (1897–1961), American Vaudeville performer
Frank Fay (Irish actor) (1870–1931), Irish co–founder of the Abbey Theatre
Isabel Fay (born 1979), British actor
Johnny Fay (born 1966), Canadian drummer
Martin Fay (1938–2012), Irish fiddler
Meagen Fay (fl. 1980s–2020s), American actress
Rick Fay (1926–1999), American clarinetist
William Fay (1872–1947), Irish actor

Politicians

Charles Joseph Fay (c. 1842–1895), Irish politician
Francis B. Fay (1793–1876), American politician
Fred Fay (1944–2011), American disability rights activist
James H. Fay (1899–1948), American lawyer
Jessica Fay, American politician
John Fay (1773–1855), American politician
Paul B. Fay (1918–2009), United States Secretary of the Navy
Peter T. Fay (1929-2021), American lawyer and judge
William M. Fay (1915–2000), judge of the United States Tax Court

Others

Brian Fay (born 1943), American philosopher
Charles Ernest Fay (1846–1931), American mountain climber
Daisy Fay maiden name of Daisy Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby^[6]
Darren Fay (born 1976), Irish footballer
George Fay, United States Army general
J. Michael Fay (born 1956), American ecologist
James Bernard Fay (born 1947), Canadian farmer
John Fay, British television writer
John D. Fay (1815–1895), American civil engineer
Kate Fay, New Zealand chef and food writer based in Auckland
Larry Fay (1888–1933), American businessperson
Lydia Mary Fay (1804–1878), American missionary, educator, writer, and translator
Marianne Fay, American economist and writer
Marion Spencer Fay (1896–1990), American physician and academic administrator
Maura Fay (1958–2001), Australian television producer
Michael Fay (born 1947), New Zealand businessperson
Michael D. Fay, American war and combat artist
Michael Francis Fay (born 1960), British Botanist and Geneticist
Michael P. Fay (born 1975), American–Singaporean vandal
Ming Fay, American sculptor
Peter W. Fay (1924–2004), American historian
Randy Fay, American software developer
Sam Fay (1856–1953), English railwayman
Sidney Bradshaw Fay (1876–1967), American historian