If you've been around the Internet for a while, you've probably heard that, "the name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before."

Wendy Darling was a character in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, originally a play published in 1904.

Bold claim. Problem is that it just ain't true.

Pre-Pan, the name was not popular, but it existed. By the 1920s, however, "Wendy" came into general use.

In the 1960s, the name reached its peak in Great Britain, whereas it didn't reach its peak in the United States until the 1970s. By the 1980s, "Wendy" went into sharp decline as a baby name worldwide.

Perhaps the most famous "Wendy," ironically, is not  particularly well-known as a personality, but as a brand. She was born in 1961, the daughter of an Ohio businessman, who named his restaurant chain after his young daughter.

The eight-year-old, red-headed, freckle-faced girl in pigtails was born Melinda Lou Thomas. She was given her nickname by her four siblings, partially as a result of her struggle to speak her own name when she was younger.

Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers said, shortly before his 2002 death, "I should've just named it after myself, because it put a lot of pressure on [her]."

But Thomas had a vision. "Quality is our recipe."

Wendy's grew to the third most popular burger establishment in the United States.

Once considered "The World's Most Feared Negotiator," the late Jim Camp had a chance encounter with Wendy's father, Dave, when Camp was anything but feared. Nor was he much of a negotiator.

Thomas gave Camp a chance to make it big in the hamburger industry, but the young Camp couldn't figure out how to scrape enough money together to get started.

For more on Jim Camp and to read the story about him and Dave Thomas, we have a resource page available:

As always,

Brian