Fanny

Where Fanny comes from

The dictionaries list Fanny as a given name — a diminutive of the female given name Frances, itself also becoming a given name — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1810
    Fanny Elssler born
    Austrian ballerina
  2. 1880
    First SSA year, and the peak
    #182 among girls with 67 babies — the first year on record, and still its best.
  3. 1946
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,771.
  4. 1949
    Fanny Ardant born
    French actress
In the dictionary
  • A diminutive of the female given name Frances, itself also becoming a given name.
Namesakes
  • Fanny Ardant · French actress, born 1949
  • Fanny Elssler · Austrian ballerina, 1810–1884
  • Fanny Kaplan · Russian assassin, 1890–1918
  • Fanny Mendelssohn · German pianist and composer, 1805–1847
  • Fanny Blankers-Koen · Dutch track and field athlete, 1918–2004

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.