To ask where this awful word came from?

[WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant]

Fanjo.
Even my auto-correct doesn't like it. Fan jo.

With the kids...it was front bottom and back bottom! Can't remember how that happened, but it was very clear in the early days.

My friend and I (we are the wrong side of fifty) call it our Fernackerpan. Generally hot and bothered these days.

My husband drives a Vulva.

Ah someone's mentioned growler - was going to ask about that, not one I'm a fan of as it suggests all sorts of wrong things!

Nowt wrong with fanjo. Or fanny for that matter (UK version, not US version, that's just confusing). Can't be doing with talking about vulvas and vaginas, there's just no need for small children to "know the correct anatomical expression" for every single part of their bodies, IMO. Medical practitioners, yes - I'd tell them the right words - but not my children (especially as mine are boys and have no need to know them until they become a LOT older).

I was brought up not to talk about such things, so my genitalia were pretty nameless really. I think at school it was 'privates' which at least was used for both boys and girls. I told dd that she had a vulva at about the same sort of point I told ds that he had a penis. The difference being that his parts already had plenty of widely used names, whereas hers didn't and I couldn't think of one that I was comfortable with.

This topic has been discussed on mumsnet repeatedly over the years and there still aren't any common names, just lots of family and regional variations. It would be good to have a word that people were just as comfortable with as willy. That there isn't suggests that girls genitalia are still seen as unmentionable somehow.

I don't see why fanjo couldn't be a contender.

I heard growler from the sketch show Bo-Selecta with keith lemon's creeepy puppet parody of Lorraine Kelly.

What's up with fanjo? It's inoffensive and even a bit comical. Never heard of it til I came on here though. I say thumbs up for the great fanjo.

Fanjo sound harmless but I don't use it.

I use nick names with the kids like winkle etc but make sure the know correct names like penis and vagina which they like to embarrass me with in the supermarket, " mum, I've got an itchy penis!". Or the little one was quite taken with vagina for a while and would chant it in the car.

But will bores stop telling me (in their best schoolmarm voice) that I have to use vagina and vulva etc - I bloody don't want to in everyday life. It sounds so superior and condescending.

I don't really like the word fanjo and have never used it. But I do think there is a lack of a sensible usable slang word for female genitalia.

I know all the arguments for using 'proper' names, but I really cannot imagine using words like penis, anus, vulva etc in conversation. Surely nobody refers to their buttocks rather than their bum or bottom in normal conversation? All these words seem strictly medical to me rather than something I would use in conversation.

So in our house we use willy and girly bits. On the basis that when the kids are old enough I can explain the different 'bits' girls have down there in more detail, and that it will be understood by anyone that needs to (eg infant school teacher "please miss, my twinkle hurts" ER????)

Nobody really seems to care that the vast majority of the population refer to a willy or something ruder rather than a penis, so why should people refer to a vulva?

Incidentally, in a sexual context, I don't think I have ever used any words to describe any bits, so I am only really talking about talking to children. If I was talking to a doctor I would use the proper names, and I am unlikely to talk to anybody else about my bits!

I forgot to put a after the growler comment - I don't really use it and didn't know the Bo Selecta link. A woman in work who has a marvellously wide and filthy vocabulary uses it occasionally and it makes me laugh. I feel I have failed DD by teaching her vagina rather than vulva - there was me thinking I was reclaiming the word for the sistas.... As she's only four, I'm not too bothered. For ages she said bajina which I found very endearing so lord knows what she would have done with vulva. I think fanjo is a good neutralish word, much better than (to me) twee and fluffy bunnikin things like foof or twinkle which I really don't like. My DS knows penis but we habitually use willy though so maybe I'm not being consistent .

I like fanjo! It's become the default word in our house with me and DH. Doesn't matter that it doesn't have a specific anatomical definition, we just use it for all the bits. Anyone with half a brain can work out whether it's referring to the vulva or vagina depending on context

Empress, your Yoni reference made me laugh out loud! We don't need to drag up the Yoni man again!

Classic yoni thread <a class="break-all" href="http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1730115-to-be-upset-that-virtually-the-whole-of-MN-are-mocking-my-husband?msgid=38413707www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1730115-to-be-upset-that-virtually-the-whole-of-MN-are-mocking-my-husband?msgid=38413707" target="_blank">www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1730115-to-be-upset-that-virtually-the-whole-of-MN-are-mocking-my-husband?msgid=38413707www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1730115-to-be-upset-that-virtually-the-whole-of-MN-are-mocking-my-husband?msgid=38413707

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a1730115-to-be-upset-that-virtually-the-whole-of-MN-are-mocking-my-husband?msgid=38413707
Single version

What about The Bearded Clam?

Yuk!

My DH came up with the word wimmy, which I love! It pairs beautifully with willy, but sounds more womanly. My two DD's use it without batting an eyelid. To my knowledge no one has been offended by it yet, but the few others who have heard it have instinctively known to what we were referring.

Fanjo doesn't bother. I prefer Otter's Pocket