Fanny (name)
Name list
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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]
GenderFeminine
MeaningHypocorism of Frances or Stephanie
Fanny was a popular independent given name as well as a diminutive of other popular names in the 18th and 19th centuries.[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 in 2023, the Registrar-General declined to accept the name for a baby's birth certificate because it might cause offense.[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, Hungary, Denmark, and Sweden.
Women
Given name
- Fanny Adams (1859–1867), English murder victim
- 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
- 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 Bornedal (born 2000), Danish actress
- Fanny Bouvet (born 1994), French diver
- Fanny Brennan (1921–2001), French-American surrealist painter
- Fanny Britt (born 1977), Canadian playwright and translator living in Quebec
- Fanny Brownbill (1890–1948), Australian pioneering politician
- 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 Cano (1944–1983), Mexican actress and producer
- Fanny Carby (1925–2002), British actress
- Fanny Hallock Carpenter (1854–1939), American lawyer and clubwoman
- Fanny Carlsen, German screenwriter of the silent era
- Fanny Carrió (fl. 1879–1949), Uruguayan liberal feminist
- Fanny DuBois Chase (1828–1902), American social reformer and author
- Fanny Charrin (1781–1854), French portrait painter specializing in miniatures
- Fanny Chmelar (born 1985), German alpine skier
- Fanny Chollet (born 1991), Swiss pilot
- Fanny Churberg (1845–1892), Finnish landscape painter
- Fanny Clamagirand (born 1984), French classical violinist
- Fanny Clar (1875–1944), French journalist, writer and socialist
- Fanny Colonna (1934–2014), French-Algerian sociologist and anthropologist
- Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837–1913), African-American educator and missionary
- 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 Cory (1877–1972), American artist and illustrator best known for her comic strip Little Miss Muffet
- Fanny Cottençon (born 1957), French actress
- Fanny Crosby (1820–1915), American mission worker, poet, lyricist, and composer
- Fanny Curtis (1908–2003), American sportswoman
- Fanny Currey (1848–1917), Irish horticulturalist and watercolour painter
- Fanny Davenport (1850–1898), Anglo-American stage actress
- Fanny Vining Davenport (1829–1891), English actress
- Fanny Davies (1861–1934), British pianist
- Fanny Deakin (1883–1968), English politician
- Fanny Deberghes (born 1994), French swimmer
- Fanny Murdaugh Downing (1831–1894), American author and poet
- Fanny Duberly (1829–1903), English soldier's wife who wrote a journal of her experiences
- Fanny Eagles (1836–1907), British Anglican deaconess
- Fanny Edelman (1911–2011), Argentine politician
- Fanny Carter Edson (1887–1952), American petroleum geologist
- Fanny Elssler (1810–1884), Austrian ballerina
- Fanny Elsta (1899–1978), Norwegian opera singer
- Fanny Fields (1880–1961), American singer, dancer and comic entertainer
- Fanny Fischer (born 1986), German sprint canoer
- Fanny Furner (1864–1938), Australian activist for the rights of women and children
- Fanny Garrido (1846–1917), Spanish writer
- Fanny Gjörup (1961–2001), Swedish actress
- Fanny Chambers Gooch (1842–1913), American author
- Fanny Good (1860–1950), New Zealand artist
- Fanny Grattan Guinness (1831–1898), British writer, evangelist and trainer of missionaries
- Fanny Hausmann (1818–1853), Slovenian writer and poet
- Fanny Hensel (1805–1847), German composer and pianist, sister of composer Felix Mendelssohn
- Fanny Herrero (born 1974), French television screenwriter
- Fanny Hertz (1830–1908), British educationalist and feminist
- Fanny Hjelm (1858–1944), Swedish visual artist
- Fanny Holland (1847–1931), English singer and comic actress
- Fanny Howe (1940–2025), American poet, novelist and short story writer
- Fanny Ingvoldstad (1857–1935), Norwegian painter
- Fanny Jacques-André-Coquin (born 1987), stage name Fanny J, French singer
- Fanny Kaplan (1890–1918), Russian attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin, born Feiga Haimovna Roytblat
- Fanny Kekelaokalani (1806–1880), member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and mother of a Queen consort
- Fanny Ketter (born 1996), Swedish actress
- Fanny Lam Christie (born 1952), Hong Kong sculptor
- Fanny E. Lacy (c. 1786–1869), British writer and activist
- Fanny Lång (born 1996), Swedish footballer
- Fanny Langdon (1864–1899), American zoologist
- Fanny Law (born 1953), Hong Kong civil servant
- Fanny Létourneau (born 1979), Canadian synchronized swimmer
- Fanny Lewald (1811–1889), German author and feminist
- Fanny López Jiménez (born 1970), Mexican archaeologist
- Fanny Loy (1917-unknown), Argentine actress, dancer and singer
- Fanny Peabody Mason (1864–1948), American heiress, philanthropist
- Fanny Mikey (c. 1930–2008), Argentine-born Colombian actress, theatre producer and entrepreneur
- Fanny Mills (1860–1899), British-American circus performer
- Fanny E. Minot (1847–1919), American public worker
- Fanny Moser (baroness) (1848–1925), Swiss noblewoman
- Fanny Moser (scientist) (1872–1953), Swiss-German zoologist
- Fanny Murray (1729–1778), English courtesan
- Fanny Östlund (born 1997), Swedish tennis player
- 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
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
- 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
- Frances Wimperis (1840–1925), New Zealand artist
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!
- Aunt Fanny, a comic character played by Fran Allison on the radio show Don McNeill's Breakfast Club
- Aunt Fanny, in Enid Blyton's The Famous Five novel series
- Fanny Ekdahl, in Ingmar Bergman's 1982 film Fanny and Alexander
- Fanny, the main character in Marcel Pagnol's 1931 play Fanny and the 1932 film adaptation Fanny
- Fanny, a character from the fourth season of Battle for Dream Island, an animated web series
- Francine "Fanny" Fulbright (Numbuh 86), from the Cartoon Network animated series Codename: Kids Next Door
- Lady Stephanie 'Fanny' Button from the BBC sitcom Ghosts
Animals
- Fanny (elephant) (born 1940s), female Asian elephant who spent the majority of her life in a small zoo in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
