[1] The name was popularized by romantic ballads about the dragon-slaying, giant-fighting folk hero Guy of Warwick.

Guy Fawkes and the failed 1605 Gunpowder Plot later made the name synonymous with treachery in England.

By the early 19th century, the tradition led to Guy being a term in England for a poorly dressed man.

Its use for characters by Sir Walter Scott in the 1815 novel Guy Mannering and by Charlotte Yonge in her 1853 novel The Heir of Redclyffe popularized the name in the United States.

In recent years, Guy Fawkes masks have symbolized resistance to tyranny.