No, there’s nothing missing in the post’s title.
Thanks to Alicia for suggesting Y as Baby Name of the Day.
If you’ve never heard of a single letter as a given name, it might be because the Social Security Administration doesn’t know what to do with them. You must search at least two letters in their database. Yi – a Chinese name – passes the test. So does the Greek Io. But Y is officially one letter short of registering.
The atlas is comfortable with a lone letter. You can find Y on the map in the US and Europe:
- Y, Alaska is a tiny speck in vast Alaska, not too far from Anchorage. With a population of less than a thousand, you don’t hear much about Y. If you do, you’ll note that the place pronounces Y just like the letter and the word why.
- Then there’s Y, France, in the northern part of the country. Once again, it is pronounced just like the letter – only in French, so it is ee, like key or gee. If you live in Y, you’re an Ypsilonien or Ypsilonienne.
There’s no shortage of other uses of the letter Y, from a nickname for Brigham Young University to the Spanish and.
But the use of the letter Y as a given name is elusive. When Alicia suggested it, she thought it might be Gaelic. Was I just missing it, or was it spelled differently in the past?
What about the surname Wye? It is easier to find in use, though still a rarity. I found a few references to a Saint Wye. There are several possible origins:
- Wye, Kent has been settled since the ninth century, and previously spelled Vaie and Wi. It likely derives from the Anglo-Saxon weol – a holy place;
- One English river is thought to be named for the Old English wic – a dairy farm;
- England’s second River Wye is derived from the Welsh Gwy. It’s also recorded as Gvoy and Waie. The element gwyn is oft-used in personal names, from Gwyneth to Gwendolen, meaning fair or blessed.
There’s also the fast-rising Wyatt. His first syllable is linked to the Old English wig – war – or the French Guyot – little Guy. If Guyot became Wyot in Norman England did Guy become Y?
That brings to mind surname Wyeth, sometimes listed as a variant of Wyatt, sometimes as a surname related to Wythe. But that name also leads to a dead end.
It all makes for an unsatisfying mystery. There have been men, and a few women, who answered to names that sounded like Y over the years. Doubtless some of them have spelled their names just Y, at least some of the time. But they’re elusive in the historical record.
I believe it is possible to give a child a single letter for a given name in the US. But it doesn’t seem like a terribly good idea. The Name Lady recently weighed in on the idea of naming a child just J.R., and her advice was similar. Y is intriguing, but perhaps frustrating to wear.
Just a thought… a ‘Y’ chromosome is needed for a boy.
Y is interesting, though completely unusable in my personal opinion. I can just imagine the blank stares Y would get when introduced. On another note, may I officially suggest Yasmin as a Name of the Day?
I went to junior high with a guy named “J” … not sure if that was on his birth certificate but that was how he spelled it.
Interesting you posted this. Just the other day I was reading a baby name book. In it “U” was listed as a Korean female name meaning “gentle”. Y, however, remains elusive.
Y is a stretch … but I’ve actually met someone who named her daughter J Middle. It was a family tradition to have the daughter have a certain set of initials, but she and her husband couldn’t agree on any J- name, and wanted to make sure that she was known as Middle anyway, so it seemed sensible at the time.
So I was intrigued by the concept. But I just don’t think it is a good idea. Y jokes aside – several were edited from this draft – it doesn’t seem fair to stop with just a single letter.
Cecily, that’s a fascinating article. I probably would’ve named her Ellen! And Yo’s name – whoa!
I’m guessing you’d get a few smart comments about “Y? Why?!” if this was your name. I’d definitely chose a longer name, if I wanted my child to go by “Y”.
I’m a little confused. Did Alicia know someone whose given name was Y? I’m assuming this must be the case — otherwise it seems like an odd suggestion for Name of the Day.
I knew somebody with a McSomething last name whose middle name was J. When he’d submit paperwork for the government, taxes or whatever, they’d alwasy send it back because J was not a valid middle name. So one year he put his middle name as Jay, and they returned it because they didn’t have a Firstname Jay McSomething in the system – just Firstname J McSomething.
I wonder if the name Y could be related to Harry S Truman’s bare middle initial that didn’t stand for anything. I believe that using single letters wasn’t that uncommon in Scotch-Irish families (Johnny Cash is another example of this.)
I actually know someone named “Y.” He wears it well, and I haven’t heard any complaints about it. Not something I would name a child, but interesting nonetheless.