Various origins:
* English habitational surname of Norman origin, from any of various places in France called Gouy.
* Borrowed from Galician Goy, a habitational surname from a small village in the province of Lugo.
* Borrowed from French Goy, a metonymic occupational surname for a farmer, from Old French goi (“bill hook, kind of knife”).
* Borrowed from Hokkien 倪 (gê); compare Ni, which derives from the standard Chinese pronunciation of these characters.