Is the name Fanny short for another name

[celia]

Looking just today on birth records a lot of females with a first name registered as Fanny.
Julie

My Grandmothers sister was Fanny thats all she was ever known as.So I think it is a name in its own right.

Celia

[ricoba]

Hi,in my family going back to c1855 there was sisters
Fanny and Frances,we were treating them as the same person for a while.Still can't find Frances past 1901 but that is another story.

[Gill B]

My guess is it started out as an abbreviation, but like some names today (e.g Daisy or Ellie) some people decided that was the version they preferred so didn't see any point in registering the full name only to never use it

[mare]

  that would probably be a common confusion ricoba... to treat Fanny and Frances as one person... from our viewpoint  

Fanny certainly was popular ... not so much today of course  

[Jojovivi]

No!
My name is fanny and its my real whole name!
But it can sure be a short name for stéphanie (wich more common in french)

So ya!!!
Fanny

[dragongirl]

My great grandmother was christened Fanny Mary Ann so definately a `Proper name`  a little like  `Nellie` this is often used as a shortened name my daughter is Helen and often called Nell

[yn9man]

Mark.r

Fanny is a name in my family too. Not quite as popular as it once was.

yn9man

[bykerlads]

Fanny is definitely short for and interchangeable with Frances.
I have some Mallys in my tree and wondered if it's short for anything although it was a proper baptismal name.
Talking of baptisms- we had an auntie, always known as Mollie, who was in fact baptised Marion because the vicar ( West Yorkshsire in about 1915) refused to accept that Mollie was a suitable name!!

[Winterbloom21]

Vicars, eh?     You just reminded me of the expression on a nun's face at school when we were asked what name we were going to take for our confirmation and one girl said 'Petronella'........