Today I became curious about why Y is called “Y”. It’s “i grec”, “i” the Greek. In Greek, this letter is upsilon “υ”. For example, in German, Danish, and Brazilian Portuguese, Y is called ipsilon. Now why “и”. Because in Latin there was no [uː] sound (as in uber), the Romans called the borrowed letter “Greek I” or “I-grek” (meaning “Y”), thus indicating the origin of the letter and sound. In Greek, there is currently no such sound, there y is pronounced as i. But there used to be.
It’s funny that Y can act as both a vowel and a consonant in English. At the beginning of words as a consonant (yes, yellow). At the end of words as a vowel.
Interestingly, there is a place in France named Y. Search using “Y, France”.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 