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Fanny is a feminine given name. Its origins include diminutives of the French name Frances meaning "free one", and of the name "Estefanía", a Spanish version of Stephanie, meaning "crown".

The popularity of the name has been steadily declining 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 in use since World War I. In New Zealand, the Registrar of Births will no longer accept the name for a baby's birth certificate.

People

Given name

• Fanny Adams (1859–1867), English murder victim
• Fanny Ardant (born 1949), French actress
• 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 Brice (1891–1951), stage name for the American comedian, actress and singer Fania Borach
• Fanny Brownbill (1890–1948), Australian pioneering politician
• Fanny Cano (1944–1983), Mexican actress and producer
• Fanny DuBois Chase (1828–1902), American social reformer and author
• Fanny Chmelar (born 1985), German alpine skier
• Fanny Clar (1875-1944), French journalist, writer, and socialist intellectual
• Fanny Jackson Coppin (1837–1913), African-American educator and missionary
• 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 Davenport (1850–1898), Anglo-American stage actress
• Fanny Davies (1861–1934), British pianist
• Fanny Murdaugh Downing (1831–1894), American author and poet
• Fanny Elssler (1810–1884), Austrian ballerina
• Fanny Elsta (1899–1978), Norwegian opera singer
• Fanny Farmer, American candy manufacturer and retailer
• Fanny Fischer (born 1986), German sprint canoer
• Fanny Furner (1864–1938), Australian activist for the rights of women and children
• 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 (born 1940), American poet, novelist, and short story writer
• Fanny Kaplan (1890–1918), Russian would-be assassin of Vladimir Lenin
• Fanny Kekelaokalani (1806–1880), member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and mother of a Queen consort
• Fanny Lam Christie (born 1952), Hong Kong sculptor
• Fanny Law (born 1953), Hong Kong civil servant
• Fanny Létourneau (born 1979), Canadian synchronized swimmer
• Fanny Lewald (1811–1889), German author and feminist
• Fanny Loy (1917-unknown), Argentine actress, dancer and singer
• Fanny Lu (born 1973), Colombian singer-songwriter and actress
• Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1847), German composer and pianist, sister of composer Felix Mendelssohn
• Fanny E. Minot (1847–1919), American public worker
• Fanny Murray (1729–1778), English courtesan
• Fanny Purdy Palmer (1839–1923), American author, lecturer and activist
• Fanny Peltier (born 1997), French sprinter
• Fanny Huntington Runnells Poole (1863–1940), American writer, book reviewer
• 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 Rozet (1881–1958), French sculptor
• Fanny Searls (1851–1939), American doctor and botanical collector
• Fanny Smith (born 1992), Swiss freestyle skier
• Fanny Stål (1821–1889), Swedish pianist
• Fanny Sunesson (born 1967), Swedish golf caddie
• Fanny Tercy (1782-1851), French historical novelist
• Fanny Vágó (born 1991), Hungarian footballer
• 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 Allen (1784–1819), first woman from New England to become a Catholic nun
• 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 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 Imlay (1794–1816), illegitimate daughter of the British writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft
• Fanny Kemble (1809–1893), English actress, writer and anti-slavery figure
• Frances Nelson (1761–1831), wife of Admiral Horatio Nelson
• Frances Sargent Osgood (1811–1850), American poet
• Fanny Stevenson (1840–1914), wife of writer Robert Louis Stevenson
• Frances Wimperis (1840–1925), New Zealand artist

Others

• Fanny Altendorfer, Austrian luger who competed in the late 1920s
• Fanny Anitùa (1887–1969), Mexican contralto opera singer
• Baroness Franziska Fanny von Arnstein (1758–1818), leader of society in Vienna, born Vögele Itzig
• 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 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 Cerrito (1817–1909), Italian ballet dancer and choreographer born Francesca Cerrito
• Fanny Chamberlain (1825–1905), wife of Joshua Chamberlain
• 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 (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 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
• Princess Fanny von Starhemberg (1875–1943), Austrian politician born Franziska Gräfin von Larisch-Mönnich
• Fanny Tarnow (1779–1862), German writer born Franziska Christiane Johanna Friederike Tarnow
• Frederick 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
• 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

References

1. Fanny - Given name information and usage statistics. In: baby-girl-names.org
2. "The Grammarphobia Blog: Jane Austen's "Fanny"". 20 February 2017.
3. Thomas, Grace (2024-01-23). "New Zealand's declined baby names of 2023". Newshub. Retrieved 2024-01-24.

• Given names
• Feminine given names
• French feminine given names