Guy (given name)

Guy ( 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".