A male name. Old German Wido, from the root vid which is common in personal names; it is doubtful whether it is the same as Old German witu ‘wood', or wît 'wide'. It was introduced into England by the Normans and appears in Latin records sometimes as Wido, sometimes as Guido. The French forms of the name were Guy and Guyon (representing the cas-sujet and the cas-régime, cf. Hue and Huon), and also Wy and Wyon; the diminutive Wyat, Guyat was also common. The surnames Guy, Guys, Guise, Guyon, Gye, Wyat, Wyatt, Wiatt, &c., are derived from it. It was in common use from the Norman Conquest until the 17th C, when Guy Fawkes drove it out of use for some 200 years. Its revival in the 19th C may have been helped by Scott’s Guy Mannering (1815), and later by C. M. Yonge’s Heir of Redcliffe (1853) whose hero was named Guy.

Wido Domesday Book 1086, Curia Regis Rolls 1189, Feudal Aids 1310. Gwydo Hundred Rolls 1273. Guido Feudal Aids 1285. Gy Hundred Rolls 1273.

Perhaps from Celtic (‘sense’), it has been almost inextricably entangled with Latin Vitus, perhaps because of the fame of the St. Guy more generally known as St. Vitus (martyred ca. 302 A. D.). It came to us from France, has been the name of two famous medieval heroes celebrated in verse—Guy of Gisborne and Guy of Warwick, and, though temporarily eclipsed by the Gunpowder Plot and though a pejorative in slang, it is nevertheless popular in C18—20; moreover, it is perpetuated in two well-known novels, Scott’s Guy Mannering (one of his best), 1815, and G. A. Lawrence’s Guy Livingstone, 1857. (Yonge; Benedictines; Harvey.)

Some derive this name from Fr. gui, mistletoe. Baxter thinks it comes through the Celtic Kei from Caius; Bailey says, of Fr. guide a leader, or guidon a banner.’ I say, from Guillaume (William), whence no doubt, as diminutives, the French names Guyot and Guion.

A Celtic name, meaning: Sensible. (French) Leader: guide.