Wendy is a Welsh feminine given name.
In Britain during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, a male Captain Wendy Oxford was identified by the Leveller John Lilburne as a spy reporting on his activities. 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 novelisation Peter and Wendy, both written 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. Margaret reportedly used to call Barrie "my friendy", with the common childhood difficulty pronouncing Rs this came out as "my fwendy" and "my fwendy-wendy".
Contents
People
Business and politics
Wendy Alexander, Scottish politician
Wendy Bourne, Australian politician
Wendy Dant Chesser, American politician
Wendy Davis (politician) (born 1963), American politician
Wendi Deng (born 1968), Chinese-born American businesswoman
Wendy Hausman, American politician
Wendy Larson, American politician
Wendy Morgan, Guernsey politician
Wendy Piper, American politician
Wendy Thomas (born 1961), daughter of fast food chain Wendy's founder Dave Thomas and the company's namesake
Wendy Thomas (politician) (born 1958 or 1959), New Hampshire state representative
Film, theatre, television, and radio
Wendy Beckett (1930–2018), British religious sister and art historian
Wendy Bergen (1956–2017), American television journalist
Wendy Craig (born 1934), English actress
Wendy Davis (born 1966), American actress
Wendy Greengross (1925–2012), English general practitioner and broadcaster
Wendy Hiller (1912–2003), English actress
Wendy Hoopes (born 1972), Malaysian American voice actress
Wendy Kaufman (born 1958), American television personality
Wendy Makkena (born 1958), American actress
Wendie Malick (born 1950), American actress and former fashion model
Wendi McLendon-Covey (born 1969), American actress and comedian
Wendy Mesley (born 1957), Canadian television journalist and reporter
Wendy Morgan (born 1958), English actress
Wendy Morgan, Canadian film director
Wendy Pack, a character from Wack Pack on The Howard Stern Show
Wendy Padbury (born 1947), English actress
Wendi Peters (born 1968), English actress
Sports
Wendy Brown (heptathlete) (born 1966), American heptathlete
Wendy Cruz (born 1976), Dominican Republic cyclist
Wendy Fuller (born 1965), Canadian diver
Wendy Holdener (born 1993), Swiss alpine skier
Wendy Lucero-Schayes (born 1963), American diver
Wendie Renard (born 1990), French football player
Wendy Richter (born 1960), American wrestler
Wendy Vereen (born 1966), American former sprinter
Wendy Weinberg (born 1958), American Olympic medalist swimmer
Wendi Willits Wells (born 1978), American basketball coach
Wendy Wyland (1964–2003), American diver
Wendy Shongwe (born 2003), South African sprinter and soccer player
Arts
Wendy Bagwell (1925–1996), founding member and leader of the Southern gospel music and comedy trio Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters
Wendy Brown (born 1955), American political theorist
Wendy Carlos (born 1939), American composer
Wendy Chung (born 1968), Hong Kong pop and C-Pop lyricist
Wendy Cope (born 1945), English poet
Wendy Davies (born 1942), British professor of history
Wendy J. Fox (born 1979), American author
Wendy M. Grossman (born 1954), journalist, blogger, and folksinger
Wendy Heard, American author
Wendy Holden (author, born 1961), British journalist and author
Wendy Holden (author, born 1965), British chick-lit novelist
Wendy James (born 1966), Transvision Vamp's singer
Wendy Mass (born 1967), American author especially of young adult and children's novels
Wendy Melvoin (born 1964), American musician and composer and twin sister of Susannah Melvoin
Wendy Partridge (born 1954), British-Canadian costume designer
Wendy Pepper (1964–2017), American fashion designer
Science and engineering
Wendy Campbell-Purdie (1925–1985), New Zealand tree-planter
Wendy Chung, American geneticist
Wendy Flavell (born 1961), British physics professor
Wendy Gibson, British professor in protozoology
Wendy Lou (born 1962), Canadian statistician
Wendy L. Martinez, American statistician
Wendy Lee Queen (born 1981), American chemist and material scientist
Other
Wendy Albano (died 2012), American woman who was murdered in Bangkok
Wendy Carlin (born 1957), Australian professor of economics
Wendy Fitzwilliam (born 1972), Miss Universe 1998 from Trinidad and Tobago
Wendy Law (1960–2026), British crossword compiler and librarian
Wendy M. Masiello (born 1958), United States Air Force general
Wendy Metcalfe, Canadian journalist, editor and news executive
Wendi Michelle Scott (born 1975), American criminal convicted of abusing her daughter in a case of Münchausen syndrome by proxy
Wendy Osefo (born 1984), Nigierian-American public affairs academic, political commentator and The Real Housewives of Potomac cast member
Wendy Wolin (1958–1966), American murder victim
Animals
Wendy (coyote), a coyote that resided in Los Angeles, California
Fictional characters
Wendy Blob in Hotel Transylvania: The Series
Wendy Christensen in Final Destination 3
Wendy Corduroy in Gravity Falls
Wendy Harris in the Super Friends cartoon and comic book
Wendy Marvell in Fairy Tail
Wendy Peyser in American Horror Story: Asylum
Wendy Byrde in Ozark
Wendy Testaburger in South Park
Winnifred "Wendy" Torrance, one of the main characters in Stephen King's The Shining
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 Wolf, a character in Peppa Pig
Wendy in How I Met Your Mother
Wendy Darling in Peter Pan
Wendy Harris in Mom (TV series)
Agent Wendy Pleakley in Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise