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Fanny (name)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fanny
GenderFeminine
Origin
MeaningDiminutive of Frances or Stephanie
Other names
Related namesFrances, Fancy, Fannie, Francie, Frankie, Stephanie

Fanny is a feminine given name. It originated as a diminutive of the English given name Frances or the French Françoise, both meaning "free one"[1] and of the Spanish name "Estefanía" and the French name Stéphanie both meaning "crown.”[2]

Fanny was a popular independent given name as well as a diminutive of other popular names in the 1700s and 1800s.[3] Usage of the name has been steadily declining in the Anglosphere since the end of the 19th century.[4] In British English, fanny has been a vulgar slang term for vagina or vulva since the 1830s. In American English, fanny is a slang term for the buttocks that has been in use since World War I.[5] In New Zealand, the Registrar of Births will no longer accept the name for a baby's birth certificate because the name might be considered offensive.[6]

The name Fanny or Fannie has remained well-used in other languages and other countries. In the United States, the name Fanny and the spelling variant Fannie are still well used by the Amish cultural group, who speak Pennsylvania Dutch.[7] The name also remains in regular use in other countries, including France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden.

Women

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Given name

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Fannie

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Pet form of Frances

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  • Fanny Alger (born Frances Alger; 1817 – 1889), American alleged first plural wife of Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith
  • Fanny Allen (born Frances Allen; 1784–1819), first woman from New England to become a Catholic nun
  • Fanny Blood (born Frances Younger; 1758 – 1785), English illustrator and educator, and longtime friend of Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Fanny Brawne (born Frances Brawne; 1800–1865), engaged to poet John Keats
  • Fanny Brough (1852–1914), British stage actress
  • Frances Burney (born Frances Burney; 1752–1840), English novelist, diarist and playwright
  • Fanny Chamberlain (née Frances Adams; 1825 – 1905), American First Lady of Maine
  • Fanny Crosby (1820–1915), American Methodist rescue mission worker, poet, lyricist and composer
  • Fanny Durack (born Sarah Frances Durack; 1889–1956), Australian swimmer
  • Fanny Fitzwilliam (1801–1854), English stage actress and theatre manager
  • Faye (born Fanny Hamlin in 1987), Swedish former singer, songwriter, and model
  • Fanny Imlay (born Frances Imlay; 1794–1816), illegitimate daughter of the British writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Fanny Kemble (born Frances Kemble; 1809–1893), English actress, writer and anti-slavery figure
  • Fanny Knight (born Frances Knight; 1793 – 1882), English niece and correspondent of the novelist Jane Austen
  • Frances Nelson (1761–1831), wife of Admiral Horatio Nelson
  • Frances Sargent Osgood (1811–1850), American poet
  • Fanny Parkes (born Frances Archer; 1794–1875), Welsh travel writer
  • Fanny Rowe (born Frances Rowe; 1913 – 1988), English stage, film and television actress
  • Fanny Steers (born Frances Steers; 1797-1861), English watercolourist, landscapist, author and composer
  • Fanny Stevenson (born Frances Vandegrift; 1840– 1914), wife of writer Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Frances Wimperis (1840–1925), New Zealand artist

Pet form of Francesca

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  • Fanny Cerrito (born Francesca Cerrito; 1817 – 1909), Italian ballet dancer and choreographer

Pet form of Francisca

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Pet form of Françoise

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  • Fanny Dillon (born Élisabeth Françoise Dillon; 1785 – 1836), French noblewoman
  • Fanny Geefs (born Isabelle Marie Françoise Corr; 1807–1883), Belgian painter of Irish descent
  • Fanny Mosselman (born Françoise Mosselman; 1808–1880), Belgian noble and salonist
  • Fanny Krumpholtz Pittar (born Louisa Françoise "Fanny" Therese Krumpholtz; 1781 – 1862), Bohemian harpist and composer

Pet form of Franziska

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  • Fanny Elssler (born Franziska Elßler; 1810 – 1884), Austrian ballerina
  • Fanny Hausmann (born Franziska Haussmann; 1818 – 1853), Slovenian writer and poet of German origin
  • Fanny Schreck (born Franziska Ott; 1877-1951), German actress

Fanny Tarnow (born Franziska Christiane Johanna Friederike Tarnow; 1779–1862), German writer born

  • Fanny von Arnstein (born Franziska Vögele Itzig; 1758 – 1818), Austrian socialite and salonnière
  • Princess Fanny von Starhemberg (born Franziska Gräfin von Larisch-Mönnich; 1875–1943), Austrian politician


Others

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  • Fanny Altendorfer, Austrian luger who competed in the late 1920s
  • Fanny Balbuk (1840–1906), prominent Noongar Whadjuk woman who lived in Perth, Western Australia
  • Fanny Amelia Bayfield (died 1891), English-born Canadian artist and educator
  • Fanny de Beauharnais (1737–1813), French lady of letters and salon holder, born Marie-Anne-Françoise Mouchard
  • Fanny Bendixen (1820–1899), hotelier and saloon keeper during the gold-rush period in British Columbia
  • Fanny Blood (1758–1785), English illustrator and educator and longtime friend of Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Fanny Bornedal (born 2000), Danish actress
  • Fanny Bouvet (born 1994), French diver
  • Fanny Brennan (1921–2001), French-American surrealist painter
  • Fanny Brice (born Fania Borach; 1891-1951), American comedian, illustrated song model, singer, and actress
  • Fanny Britt (born 1977), Canadian playwright and translator living in Quebec
  • Fanny Buitrago (born 1943), Colombian fiction writer and playwright
  • Fanny Cadeo (born 1970), Italian showgirl, model, television personality and singer
  • Fanny Calder (1838–1923), promoter of education in domestic subjects in Liverpool
  • Fanny Carby (1925–2002), British actress
  • Fanny Carlsen, German screenwriter of the silent era
  • Fanny Carrió (fl. 1879–1949), Uruguayan liberal feminist
  • Fanny Churberg (1845–1892), Finnish landscape painter
  • Fanny Clamagirand (born 1984), French classical violinist
  • Fanny Colonna (1934–2014), French-Algerian sociologist and anthropologist
  • Fanny Corbaux (1812–1883), British painter and biblical commentator
  • Fanny Cornforth (1835–1909), model and mistress of painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, real name thought to be Sarah Cox
  • Fanny Corri-Paltoni, English operatic soprano active in Europe between 1818 and 1835
  • Fanny Cradock (born Phyllis Pechey; 1909–1994), English restaurant critic, television cook and writer
  • Fanny Currey (1848–1917), Irish horticulturalist and watercolour painter
  • Fanny Deakin (1883–1968), politician from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England
  • Fanny Deberghes (born 1994), French swimmer
  • Fanny Duberly (1829–1903), English soldier's wife who wrote a journal of her experiences
  • Fanny Carter Edson (1887–1952), American petroleum geologist
  • Fanny Fern (1811–1872), pen name of Sara Willis, American newspaper columnist, humorist, novelist, and author of children's stories
  • Fanny Garrido (1846–1917), Spanish writer
  • Fanny Chambers Gooch (1842–1913), American author
  • Fanny Heldy (1888–1973), Belgian operatic soprano born Marguerite Virginie Emma Clémentine Deceuninck
  • Fanny Kaplan (born Feiga Haimovna Roytblat; 1890 – 1918; Russian Socialist-Revolutionary who attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin
  • Fanny Lumsden (born Edwina Lumsden in 1986), Australian country music singer and songwriter
  • Fanny Bury Palliser (1805–1878), English writer on art, and lace
  • Fanny Addison Pitt (1847–1937), English actress
  • Fanny Rubio (born 1949), Spanish academic
  • Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834–1905), Aboriginal Tasmanian

Men

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  • Fanny Amun (born 1962), Nigerian former football player and coach
  • Frederick Fanny Walden (1888–1949), English footballer and cricketer

Fictional characters

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Animals

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  • Fanny (elephant) (born 1940s), female Asian elephant who spent the majority of her life in a small zoo in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

References

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  1. ^ {{cite book |last1=Hanks|first1= Patrick| last2=Hardcastle|first2=Kate |last3=Hodges| first3=Flavia| author-link= |date= 2006|title= Oxford Dictionary of First Names|url= |location= |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=97|isbn= 0-19-861060-2}
  2. ^ https://www.behindthename.com/name/fanny
  3. ^ {{cite book |last1=Hanks|first1= Patrick| last2=Hardcastle|first2=Kate |last3=Hodges| first3=Flavia| author-link= |date= 2006|title= Oxford Dictionary of First Names|url= |location= |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=97|isbn= 0-19-861060-2}
  4. ^ Fanny - Given name information and usage statistics. In: baby-girl-names.org
  5. ^ "The Grammarphobia Blog: Jane Austen's "Fanny"". 20 February 2017.
  6. ^ Thomas, Grace (2024-01-23). "New Zealand's declined baby names of 2023". Newshub. Archived from the original on January 22, 2024. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  7. ^ https://amishamerica.com/what-are-common-amish-names/
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