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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: VICTORIA on Saturday 18 November 06 13:59 GMT (UK)
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Can anyone tell me if Fanny is a " proper " christian name or is it a nickname for;
Ann, Hannah, or Harriett ???
Victoria
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I would have thought that Fanny was a shortened form of Frances but we know that anything is possible in our familes. ;)
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Never thought of Frances. I suppose it`s possible , but as you say anything is possible.
Victoria ???
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I've found that Fanny is either a pet name for Frances OR a name in its own right - I have ancestors who've used the name both ways LOL
::) ::)
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HI,
I have a birth cert for Fanny Walker but all the census & her marriage cert show her name as Frances.
Nashua
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Fanny can be found as a pet name and is a proper name in its own right. Dating back to the 17th century it was developed as a diminutive form of Euphemia, Frances and the Welsh Myfanwy. However during the 19th century the name started to become unpopular. This has been put down to the connection with the brutal murder of an eight year old girl by the name of Fanny Adams and from this you get the every day phrase of Sweet Fanny Adams or sweet F.A. It's usage was further dented when the slang usage of the word Fanny became into use sometime during the twentieth century and depending on which side of the pond you come from it can mean two different things. One form of the pet name Fanny has been connected to the proper name of Ann which then gives you Fanny Ann.
old rowley
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Fanny is a diminutive of Frances. My great great great grandmother was Fanny or Frances Layton Culling. Also note some of Jane Austen's characters are called Fanny, for example Fanny Dashwood, the horrible sister in law in Sense and Sensibility, and Fanny Price, the Eternal Drip, in Mansfield Park.
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Victoria,
My 2 x great grannie was a Francis, she only appears twice with that name, at baptism and marriage, elsewhere she is Fanny! So look under both names when you are searching :D
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Thanks a lot to all of you for your help. I will keep information "on record" when I search for my ancestor.
Victoria :)
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Fanny can also be used for the name Ann (annie-
Fanny) or if you want to go up market what about
Francesca.
Jinks
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Just to put a spanner in the works, I had a Gr Aunt Eliza Alice and she was always called Fanny!!
Barbara 8)
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Everyone at my high school called our deputy headmistress Fanny, and when my Mum was at the same school they also used it as a nickname for their headmistress.
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My dad always says 'it's Fanny Ann!' whenever I phone to speak to my mum ;D
Dawn
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I have a Tryphena (where did they get that from??) who was known as Fanny.
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My late wife had an Aunt who's name was Fanny. On her birth and death cert's which we have here, it was just plain FANNY. DEEGEE.
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I can remember being called that also as a child Dawn. ;D
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It exists in its own right.
I have an ancestor whose name that was . . on the birth certificate . . in the censuses . . . on her death certificate . . . having died at 23 she did not get to marry but three out of four supports the fact that it is its own name.
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I am sure it does, especially as Ann was very common for middle names as well, in fact mine is Anne, so thats probably why my grandmother referred to me sometimes as "Fanny Ann."