Also known as Fanny (given name), Fanny (first name)
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", and of the Spanish name "Estefanía" and the French name Stéphanie, both meaning "crown".
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", and of the Spanish name "Estefanía" and the French name Stéphanie, both meaning "crown".
Fanny was a popular independent given name as well as a diminutive of other popular names in the 18th and 19th centuries. Usage of the name has been steadily declining in the Anglosphere since the end of the 19th century. 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. In New Zealand in 2023, the Registrar-General declined to accept the name for a baby's birth certificate because it might cause offense.
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. The name also remains in regular use in other countries, including France, Germany, Hungary, Denmark, and Sweden.
Contents
Women
Given name
Fanny Adams (1859–1867), English murder victim
Fanny Agostini (born 1988), French journalist and television presenter
Fanny Ahlfors (1884–1947), Finnish politician
Fanny Alaux (1797–1880), French artist
Fanny Alger (c. 1816–1889), Alleged first plural wife of Joseph Smith
Fanny Alving (1874–1955), Swedish poet and novelist
Fanny Ardant (born 1949), French actress
Fanny Arden (1859–1955), New Zealand artist
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 Bastien (born 1961), French actress
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 Yarborough Bickett (1870–1941), American social worker and political hostess
Pet form of Frances
Fanny Alger (1817–1889), American alleged first plural wife of Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith
Fanny Allen (1784–1819), first woman from New England to become a Catholic nun
Fanny Blood (1758–1785), English illustrator and educator, and longtime friend of Mary Wollstonecraft
Fanny Brawne (1800–1865), engaged to poet John Keats
Fanny Brough (1852–1914), British stage actress
Frances Burney (1752–1840), English novelist, diarist and playwright
Fanny Chamberlain (1825–1905), American First Lady of Maine
Fanny Crosby (1820–1915), American Methodist rescue mission worker, poet, lyricist and composer
Fanny Durack (1889–1956), Australian swimmer
Fanny Fitzwilliam (1801–1854), English stage actress and theatre manager
Fanny Hamlin (born 1987), also known as Faye (musician), Swedish former singer, songwriter, and model
Fanny Imlay (1794–1816), illegitimate daughter of the British writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft
Fanny Kemble (1809–1893), English actress, writer and anti-slavery figure
Fanny Knight (1793–1882), English niece and correspondent of the novelist Jane Austen
Pet form of Francesca
Fanny Cerrito (1817–1909), Italian ballet dancer and choreographer
Pet form of Francisca
Fanny Anitùa (1887–1969), Mexican contralto opera singer
Pet form of Françoise
Fanny Dillon (1785–1836), French noblewoman
Fanny Geefs (1807–1883), Belgian painter of Irish descent
Fanny Mosselman (1808–1880), Belgian noble and salonist
Fanny Krumpholtz Pittar (1781–1862), Bohemian harpist and composer
Pet form of Franziska
Fanny von Arnstein (1758–1818), Austrian socialite and salonnière
Fanny Elssler (1810–1884), Austrian ballerina
Fanny Hausmann (1818–1853), Slovenian writer and poet of German origin
Fanny Schreck (1877–1951), German actress
Fanny von Starhemberg (1875–1943), Austrian politician
Fanny Tarnow (1779–1862), German writer born
Pen name
Fanny Cradock, English restaurant critic, television cook and writer Phyllis Pechey (1909–1994)
Fanny Fern, Sara Willis (1811–1872), American newspaper columnist, humorist, novelist and author of children's stories
Stage name
Fanny Brice, American comedian, actress and singer Fania Borach (1891–1951)
Fanny Heldy, Belgian operatic soprano born Marguerite Virginie Emma Clémentine Deceuninck (1888–1973)
Fanny Lu, Colombian singer-songwriter and actress Lucía Martínez Buenaventura (born 1973)
Fanny Lumsden, Australian country music singer and songwriter Edwina Lumsden (born 1986)
Men
Fanny Amun (born 1962), Nigerian former football player and coach
Fanny Walden (1888–1949), English footballer and cricketer
Fictional characters
Fanny Hill, the protagonist of Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, an erotic novel by John Cleland
Fanny Price, heroine of Jane Austen's 1814 novel Mansfield Park
Fanny (Guilty Gear), video game character
Fanny (Sesame Street), children's television character
Flapper Fanny, cartoon character
Lord Fanny, from the DC Comics series The Invisibles
Madame Fanny La Fan, in the BBC sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
Animals
Fanny (elephant) (born 1940s), female Asian elephant who spent the majority of her life in a small zoo in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
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Fanny Blankers-Koen (1918–2004), Dutch track and field athlete, Olympic and world champion and world record holder
Fanny Blomé (born 1989), Swedish model and beauty pageant titleholder
Fanny Bury Palliser (1805–1878), English writer on art and lace
Fanny Purdy Palmer (1839–1923), American author, lecturer and activist
Fanny Peltier (born 1997), French sprinter
Fanny Addison Pitt (1847–1937), English actress
Fanny Runnells Poole (1863–1940), American writer and book reviewer
Fanny Puyesky (1939–2010), Uruguayan lawyer, writer and dramatist known as "the first feminist" of Uruguay
Fanny Ramos (born 1995), French kickboxer
Fanny Raoul (1771–1833), French feminist writer, journalist, philosopher and essayist
Fanny Rinne (born 1980), German field hockey player
Fanny Rosenfeld, also known as Bobbie Rosenfeld (1904–1969), Canadian multi-sport athlete
Fanny Rozet (1881–1958), French sculptor
Fanny Rubio (born 1949), Spanish academic
Fanny Rush, British portrait painter
Fanny Searls (1851–1939), American doctor and botanical collector
Fanny Sidney (born 1987), French actress, director and screenwriter
Fanny Smith (born 1992), Swiss freestyle skier
Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834–1905), Aboriginal Tasmanian considered the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca and thus the Tasmanian languages
Fanny Bixby Spencer (1879–1930), American philanthropist and antiwar writer
Fanny Stål (1821–1889), Swedish pianist
Fanny Stollár (born 1998), Hungarian tennis player
Fanny Sunesson (born 1967), Swedish golf caddie
Fanny Tenret (born 1990), French footballer
Fanny Tercy (1782–1851), French historical novelist
Fanny Thibout (1907–1998), Belgian dancer and folklorist
Fanny Vágó (born 1991), Hungarian footballer
Fanny Valette (born 1986), French actress
Fanny Waterman (1920–2020), English musician, founder of the Leeds International Piano Competition
Fanny Westerdahl (1817–1873), Swedish dramatic stage actress
Frances Nelson (1761–1831), wife of Admiral Horatio Nelson
Frances Sargent Osgood (1811–1850), American poet
Fanny Parkes (1794–1875), Welsh travel writer
Fanny Rowe (1913–1988), English stage, film and television actress
Fanny Steers (1797–1861), English watercolourist, landscapist, author and composer
Fanny Stevenson (1840–1914), wife of writer Robert Louis Stevenson
