Fanny (first name)

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Fanny is a feminine given name .

Origin and meaning

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English as German name lexicons propose the name Fanny as a short form of Frances , and Franziska be seen. The origin of the name has not been conclusively clarified; A Celtic one would also be conceivable, analogous to Jenny . In addition, the overwhelming majority of women named “Fanny” has always felt that the name “Fanny” is an independent female first name. With Henry Fielding's novel Joseph Andrews of 1742 it became the fashion name throughout Europe and was particularly popular with the Protestant German nobility and Scandinavia, while "Franziska" is more associated with southern Catholics. A correlation with "Franziska" is only absolutely certain in the Bavarian, especially rural, language area. But here too there is the independent “Fanny”, ie “Fanny” as a birth register entry without reference to “Franziska”. The Yiddish “Feigla” (variants: Feigel (e), Fejga) could also be rendered as “Fanny” (Hebrew פאני / פני).

In the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world, the name has been burdened with previously unexplained connotations for a long time and is therefore hardly used anymore: In British English the word "fanny" refers to the female genitals, in American English the buttocks. Perhaps the world-famous pornographic novel Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland (1749, commonly called Fanny Hill , after the title character of the novel) plays a role in these connotations .

Name bearers

First name

Fictional character

  • Fanny Hill , title character of the erotic letter novel of the same name from 1749 (in the original English Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure )