Fanny

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Girl · Latin, through English pet forms

Fanny

Say it: FAN-ee

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Pet form of Frances, from Latin Franciscus 'Frankish, French'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

A Georgian and Victorian pet name used as a given name in its own right.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1880s

In the United States

02040608018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1880per 100,000 babies of that sex
  • 9,540 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1885, about 1 in 1,600 girls
  • 9 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914

Used by

EnglishAmerican

The family of the name

Other spellings: Fannie

Famous bearers

  • Fanny Burney, English novelist
  • Fanny Crosby, American hymn writer

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Parish baptism registers
  • National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.