Heyy is an internet slang spelling of 'hey' with two or more Y's tacked on the end, typically read as a flirty or suggestive greeting when sent over text or DM.

Where did Heyy come from?

The earliest known flirtatious definition appeared in an Urban Dictionary entry submitted on March 22, 2009, followed by dating advice threads on Yahoo Answers starting in 2010.

Adding extra Y's usually signals romantic or sexual interest, and the more Y's included the stronger or more joking the signal, according to a viral Tumblr infographic later covered by Gizmodo.

It is used in one-on-one texts, DMs, or dating apps as a flirty opener, and often shows up in screenshots and memes joking about what the extra letters imply.

Is Heyy still popular?

The convention is still widely recognized online and got a mainstream boost in 2017 when it was used as a plot twist in Season 1, Episode 2 of Netflix's American Vandal.

Heyy

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Published August 28, 2026

Heyy is internet slang where extra Y's tacked onto 'hey' turn a plain greeting into a flirty one, especially over text or DM. What started as a 2009 Urban Dictionary quirk grew into a full decoding chart by 2011, then a sitcom plot device by 2017, making extra vowels shorthand for unspoken flirtation in digital messaging.

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Overview

The joke rests on a sliding scale: a single 'hey' reads as neutral or bored, 'heyy' with two Y's suggests flirty interest, and each additional Y ratchets up the intensity, sometimes to punchline levels like 'heyyyyyyyyyy'1. Debates about what a specific number of Y's actually meant fueled dating advice threads across Yahoo Answers, Reddit, and Bodybuilding.com forums for years2.

The format spawned countless jokes built around double meanings, especially in 2012 when 'the D' and 'come over bae' became stock punchlines to a suggestively spelled 'heyy'3. Reaction images, screenshots of texts, and infographics decoding the number of Y's became the visual shorthand, with Gizmodo joking that a very long 'heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy' probably meant 'One of us is going to be pregnant very soon'1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Urban Dictionary / Tumblr (viral spread)

Date

2009

The earliest known documentation of 'heyy' as flirtatious rather than accidental appeared in an Urban Dictionary entry submitted on March 22, 2009, which defined it as a term a young teenage girl uses to address a boy she fancies4. Padding words with extra vowels dated back to late-1990s instant messaging, but the rise of QWERTY smartphones and autocorrect made the misspelling feel deliberate rather than sloppy, giving the extra Y's their loaded meaning3.

In June 2010, Yahoo Answers user Alex M asked how to interpret a text containing 'heyy' from someone of romantic interest, and user MissMablee laid out the two-Y-equals-interest reading that later became the standard interpretation2.

How It Spread

By 2011, dating advice threads about the exact meaning of extra Y's popped up across Yahoo Answers, Quora, Bodybuilding.com forums, and Reddit5. On July 10, 2011, Redditor /u/IsThatEvenLegal posted an /r/AskReddit thread titled 'Whats the difference between Hey and Heyy,' which drew replies breaking down the flirt-scale interpretation of the extra letter3.

The next month, Tumblr blog MaleMinded posted an infographic mapping out what each variant meant, from a plain 'hey' up through 'heyyyyy.' The chart went viral on Tumblr and was picked up by Gizmodo in August 2011 under the headline 'If Someone Texts You Heyyyyy, They Want Sex,' which called the double-Y hey 'a tricky one to decipher'1.

In September 2017, the trope showed up as a plot twist in Season 1, Episode 2 of Netflix's true-crime mockumentary American Vandal, where investigators discover that Sara, a popular student, had texted the outcast Alex Trimboli a 'heyy' with two Y's, reframing the case6.

How to Use This Meme

The convention is simple: a single 'hey' typically reads as friendly or neutral, 'heyy' with two Y's often signals flirty interest, and each extra Y commonly amps up the vibe or tips into sarcasm. People use it in DMs, text messages, and dating app openers, and screenshots of 'heyy' texts frequently show up in memes about ambiguous romantic signals1.