The traditional burning effigy used in many Bonfire Night celebrations is called a Guy.
The word comes from Guy Fawkes, whose attempted role in the Gunpowder Plot made him the central figure of the 5 November tradition. In the nineteenth century, children commonly made crude human figures from old clothes stuffed with straw or paper and displayed them while asking for “a penny for the Guy.”
These figures were later burned on bonfires alongside fireworks. The practice helped spread “guy” as a general English word for a man or person, especially in informal American English. The original sense referred specifically to an effigy of Fawkes.
Not every modern celebration burns an effigy, and many organised events avoid human-shaped figures for safety or historical reasons. The term remains strongly associated with Bonfire Night, even where the custom is represented symbolically rather than practised literally.