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?

Ah right, it was there. Yes, I think I remember being initially confused what he meant & wondering what 'fanny' could be...

Incidentally, another famous Fanny, though not a person, is the Phyllis Calvert melodrama Fanny By Gaslight. I remember my gran having a copy of the DVD on her shelf.

Thanks. My naivetie's been slightly reduced!

I had a great auntie Fanny. She lived to the grand old age of 107 probably because she never married. She was very naughty and used to lend me very saucy books when I was a young teenager.
She called herself Fiona when her name started to be commonly used for female genitalia.

I've come across someone who chose to address a colleague as Richard rather than Dick because she didn't feel she could use his full name....Dick Aird.