To think this attitude to names like Fanny in old books is silly?

[Carla786]

I've seen posts here agreeing with the new Enid Blyton editions that changed Fanny to Franny and Dick to Rick, some even saying she must have meant it as a double entendre.

 Just seems silly & narrow-minded to me. Not everything was always meant as a double entendre. Should Fanny Price in Mansfield Park also be changed? Or other characters called names that mean different things now? 

I remember my mother passed down a minor Blyton book with a kitten called Bimbo in. Was that Blyton being rude, or just due to the fact that Bimbo was slang for 'kid' then?

I dunno, but you have to wonder about Mr Pinkwhistle.

Poor Wee Willie Winkie is up for the mother of all name changes…

Yeah the absolute stupidity of people being unable to grasp that modern language and attitudes can't usefully be applied to the past always annoys the living shit out of me tbh. They are too dumb to realise just how very dumb they are.

My mother also read those to me! 🤣 She collected Blyton.
Unfortunately Blyton does seem to have quite a few of these...

I snorted at this.

Fanny wasn't that uncommon a diminutive until relatively recently, and it's still quite a popular name in France where it doesn't have the same connotations. Fanny Ardent is a brilliant French actress who is amongst my favourites!

But I must confess the frequent recurrence of the names Dick and Fanny in the same context in Blyton is quite entertaining. I'm not sure ole Enid didn't have unsuspected depths to her ...

What's less certain is why her characters' names are constantly being altered, but Arthur Ransome's Titty is apparently still a-okay.

Queer (or should that be 'peculiar') minds some people have!

100% agree. Changing Titty's name in Swallows and Amazons also enrages me! Because people are thick oiks. Annoying af.

Yeah I mean if you take it too far prominent women of their time like Fanny Burney or Fanny Fern (OK not so famous now but still interesting) are reduced to jokes.

Does this happen with men called Dick? Maybe yes?

I think 'bimbo' must have not had the same connotations as it has now. I remember my friend having a pet hamster named Bimbo, that would be been late 70s.

I also suppose that Dick and Fanny must have been much more familiar as everyday names mid 20th century. Look at Dick Van Duke, tv star of the sixties, and Fanny Cradock, popular TV cook of the sixties (UK). No one was sniggering about their names at the time.

But the publishers of Enid Blyton know that if they left the characters' names as Dick and Fanny nowadays this would lead to more sniggering going on from adults providing the books to the children, general awkwardness etc, easier to just switch a few letters round. The names were changed back in the 80s/90s I think.

Yes I'm not a huge Ransome fan but there's nothing wrong with her name in context. It shouldn't be changed but neither should Fanny.

Arguably Titty's name is more awkward as fanny is used less as slang by younger gens .

Sorry the bit about Bimbo was meant to be rhetorical. Bimbo was originally slang for 'kid' due to travelling over from Italy (bambino for child). I'm doubtful she was that aware of the later slang connotations. I thunk they became common in the 50s US but need to check.

Interesting @Carla786 , I didn't know where ''Bimbo' originated. Makes perfect sense.

HA😀 sorry im probably one of the people that books needed changed for

Fanny means bum in the US and I can imagine they are more prissy about this over there -it could affect sales of Magic Faraway Tree

Currently reading Swallows and Amazons to DC, and there is a main character called Titty. Nobody has batted an eyelid.

I remember my mum reading swallows and Amazons to me and absolutely pissing herself at Titty 🤣

I remember seeing a book Little Black Sambo goes fox hunting. In a National Trust house.
It wouldn’t be allowed now. Wrong in so many ways.

But it would be to me OTT to start changing the way stories that were written in the past. Language and meaning of words change. Gay is one example. In the fifties it was a word used in the normal sense of someone being happy. Now the meaning quite different. Should all films and books using it be changed ? No. Educate yourself about times past and the world they were made for. Do not try to ‘amend’ them.

One of my ancestors was called Fanny Blood. I try to be grown up about it when mentioning the Blood Family line .

Well it's possibly the most entertaining thing about the book 😂

Hang on, Mary Wollstonecraft had a best friend called that! Could it be the same person?

If Dick Van Dyke was fictional he'd be in all sorts of trouble!

Yes, my favourite childhood book was The 101 Dalmatians and the sequel has a character called Gay. Older relatives remember friends with that name. It doesn't mean anything like Fanny but it's still silly to be unable to appreciate what the writer meant in the context then.

My Grandma's name on her birth certificate was Fanny.
She was born in 1900 and always known as Fan or Fanny.

Hmm...maybe yes. Good point.

Of course changing the names is appropriate. I don't want my children exposed to filth. It's no longer acceptable to say all manner of things - that's progress!

Your children will be exposed to far worse than Fanny, Dick or Titty.