Y?N-Vee - Name

Name

In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since the classical Greek sound /y/, similar to modern German "ü", or French "u", was not a native sound for Latin speakers, and the letter was initially only used to spell foreign words. In Romance languages, this history has led to the standard modern name of the letter: Spanish i griega, French i grec, etc. Alternatively, the original Greek name upsilon has also been adapted into several modern languages such as German.

Old English borrowed Latin Y to write the native Old English sound /y/ (previously written with the rune yr ᚣ). The name of the letter may be related to ui (or vi) in various medieval languages; in Middle English it was wi /wiː/, which through the Great Vowel Shift became the Modern English wy /waɪ/.