What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

26 April 2012

W is for Wendy

Windy, Wendi, Wendy. Not quite as meteorological as your name suggests, usually (although I'd love it if we had a local weatherperson called Wendy. Or Sunny. Or Rainy. Never mind.), but still delightful, as far as I know.

Wendy
Behind the Name says it better than I, once again: "In the case of the character from J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan (1904), it was created from the nickname 'fwendy', given to the author by a young friend. However, the name was used prior to the play (rarely), in which case it could be related to the Welsh name GWENDOLEN and other names beginning with the element 'gwen', meaning 'white, fair, blessed'." So there you go. Thanks, J. M. Barrie. Currently #585 for girls in the U.S.; peaked in popularity in 1970, when it got to #28.

I don't know who the
actress is playing Wendy,
alas, but that's Cathy Rigby
as Peter. Source.
Famous Wendys: Wendy Thomas, of the restaurant Wendy's; Baby Name Wizard says her given name isn't Wendy, but it seems to be a bit late in the day to do anything about that now. Wendy Wilson, of the group Wilson Phillips.

Fictional Wendys: Wendy Moira Angela Darling (Peter Pan), Wendy the Good Little Witch (Casper the Friendly Ghost)

My Wendys: I feel like I've had about a dozen classmates called Wendy (or Wendi) across my educational years, but the one I'm in contact most lately is my friend Wendy in Lubbock. She was one of the first people Chad & I met when we started going to church at South Plains, and later on we were running buddies (although she is way faster than I am) in the WTRC. Now I mostly harass her on Facebook, just like I do to everyone else I know. I don't have any characters called Wendy in my current WIP, which I'm kind of confused about, because I thought I did have at least one.

Are you a Wendy? Do you eat at Wendy's (due to their prevalence on UT campus, that's all I've been eating this week. Ugh!)? Do you love Peter Pan?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The lady who comes once a month and cleans stuff I can't anymore is named Wendy...veery nice, dependable and humourous lady. I used to have a friend named Wendy but not so much anymore.

Claire Hennessy said...

Don't know any Wendys now but I knew a Wendy at boarding school who we later found out was the infamous "teddy cutter" (yes, that's right - she went around cutting bits off our cuddly teddys!). Put me off the name Wendy!

J E Fritz said...

I don't think I've met a single Wendy in my lifetime. At least, not in person. I met one online.

Once again, I was born after the popularity started to wane. I guess I have to start hanging out with slightly older people.

Wendy Anderson said...

I'm just now getting to read this. How fun! Many in my family wanted to believe the reason I was named Wendy was because I was born on the same day as the Lubbock tornado. (I was in Plainview). However, that is not the case. I was named after one of my dad's favorite basketball players, Wendy Blasingame, and Dionne Warwick. I am definitely too nice and sensitive to be a teddy bear cutter! Thanks Susan for the interesting info!