Wendy

Wendy is a given name generally given to girls in English-speaking countries.

The name is found in United States records from the 19th century. The name Wendy appeared over twenty times in the U.S. Census of 1880. In Britain, Wendy appeared as a masculine name in a parish record in 1615, and it was used as a name for both women and men in the 1881 census of England, occasionally as a diminutive for the Welsh Gwendolyn. It was also used as a surname in Britain from at least the 17th century. Its popularity in Britain as a feminine name is owed to the character Wendy Darling from the 1904 play Peter Pan and its 1911 novelization Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie. Its popularity reached a peak in the 1960s, and subsequently declined. The name was inspired by young Margaret Henley, daughter of Barrie's poet friend W. E. Henley. With the common childhood difficulty pronouncing Rs, Margaret reportedly used to call him "my fwiendy-wendy".

Chinese women with the same or similar-sounding characters as their given names often anglicise their names as Wendi or Wendy (e.g. Wendi Deng, Wendy Kweh).

In Germany after 1986 the name Wendy became popular because it is the name of a magazine (targeted specifically at young girls) about horses and horse riding.

In film, television, and radio

• Wendy Beckett, nun and TV presenter on art history
• Wendy Bergen
• Wendy Calio (born 1977), American actress
• Wendy Craig (born 1934), British actress
• Wendy Greengross (1925–2012), British general practitioner and broadcaster
• Wendy Hiller, English film and stage actress
• Wendy Kaufman, television personality and Snapple spokesperson
• Wendie Malick, born Wendy Malick, American actress and fashion model
• Wendy Mesley, host and reporter for CBC Television's consumer investigation series Marketplace
• Wendy Padbury (born 1947), British actress
• Wendi Peters (born 1968), English actress
• Wendy Richard (1943-2009), British actress
• Wendy Toye (1917-2010), British actress and filmmaker
• Wendy Williams, radio host, media personality and author

In sports

• Wendy Brown (heptathlete), American heptathlete
• Wendy Cruz, Dominican Republic cyclist
• Wendy Fuller, Canadian diver
• Wendy Lucero, American diver
• Wendie Renard, French football player
• Wendy Richter, American wrestler
• Wendy Weinberg, American Olympic medalist swimmer
• Wendy Wyland (1964-2003), American diver

In the arts

• Wendy Carlos, American composer
• Wendy Chung, Hong Kong pop and C-Pop lyricist
• Wendy J. Fox, American author
• Wendy Holden (born 1961), British journalist and author
• Wendy Holden (born 1965), British chick-lit novelist
• Wendy James, Transvision Vamp's singer
• Wendy Mass (born 1967), American author, especially of young adult and children's novels
• Wendy Melvoin, musician and composer and twin sister of Susannah Melvoin
• Wendy Pepper, fashion designer
• Wendy Pini, creator, artist and writer of the fantasy comic book universe Elfquest
• Wendy Shon, Korean singer and member of Red Velvet
• Wendy Sulca, Peruvian singer
• Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright
• Wendy Whelan, New York City Ballet principal dancer
• Wendy O. Williams, stripper turned punk rocker and leader of the Plasmatics
• Wendy Wilson, pop singer of Wilson Phillips fame and daughter of The Beach Boys singer, Brian Wilson
• Wendy Rose (born May 8, 1948) is a Hopi/Miwok writer.

Other

• Wendy Chung, geneticist
• Wendy Davis, politician
• Wendy Davis, actress
• Wendi Deng, Chinese-born American businesswoman
• Wendy Fitzwilliam, Miss Universe 1998 from Trinidad and Tobago
• Wendy Lou (born 1962), Canadian statistician
• Wendy M. Masiello, United States Air Force officer
• Wendy L. Martinez, American statistician
• Wendi Michelle Scott (born 1975), American criminal convicted of abusing her daughter in a case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy
• Melinda Lou "Wendy" Morse, daughter of businessman Dave Thomas, founder of the Wendy's fast food chain

• Wendy Christensen in Final Destination 3
• Wendy Corduroy in Gravity Falls
• Wendy Darling in Peter Pan
• Wendy Harris in the Super Friends cartoon and comic book
• Wendy Johnson in My Parents are Aliens
• Wendy O. Koopa, one of Bowser's Koopalings introduced in the video game Super Mario Bros. 3
• Wendy Marvell in Fairy Tail
• Wendy Peyser in American Horror Story: Asylum
• The first name of Agent Pleakley, a male alien character from Lilo & Stitch
• Wendy Rhoades, wife of Chuck Rhoades and a psychiatrist/performance coach at Axe Capital in Showtime series Billions
• Wendy Testaburger in South Park
• Winifred "Wendy" Torrance, one of the main characters in Stephen King's The Shining
• Wendy Winkle in The Cramp Twins
• Wendy Wu, the titular character of Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior
• Wendy the Good Little Witch in Harvey Comics
• Wendy, a character in Bob the Builder
• Wendy, a playable character in the indie survival game Don't Starve and its sequel Don't Starve Together
• Wendy in How I Met Your Mother

• "Wendy", a song from the 1954 Broadway musical Peter Pan
• "Wendy", written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love and recorded by The Beach Boys, 1964
• "Windy", written by Ruthann Friedman and recorded by The Association, 1967
• "Born to Run", written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen, 1974