Origin of the Name Fay
The origin of the name
Fay was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name Fay
include Faye, Fee, O'Fiaich and Fey. This Irish name has a number of origins. It is often a form of the Norman name 'de Fae' which was introduced into County Westmeath during the twelfth century. Fay can also be an anglicized form of the Gaelic O'Fiaich sept name, which was also changed to Fee and Foy.
A sept or clan is a collective term describing a group of persons whose immediate ancestors bore a common surname and inhabited the same territory. Irish septs and clans that are related often belong to even larger groups, sometimes called tribes.
O'Fiaich is taken from a Gaelic word that translates as 'raven'. A family of the name is on record from the year 1482 when they were recorded in the 'Annals of the Four Masters' as erenaghs of Derrybrusk, near Enniskillen. In Griffith's Valuation in the year 1850 there are 52 entries of the name Fay or Fey in the barony of Tullygarvey. A notable bearer of the name in modern times is Cardinal Thomas O'Fiaich, Archbishop of Armagh.
The Fay coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Fay descendants.