Fanni/Fanny - both inappropriate?

[YoungLadyFromScandinavia]

Sorry for my bad English, I'm not a native English speaker and neither have my English grades been high. So I guess there are a lot of mistakes in this post.

I'm from Finland where the name Fanni/Fanny is a quite usual name. I know many girls and women who are named Fanni or Fanny. It's my name too, written with "I" as the last letter. For the last few days I have read much opinions about my name. This hasn't been very fun... I have read that the name "Fanny" means in the UK female genitals, and is considered very vulgar. Many Finnish people also think that it's not anymore a good idea to give that name to babies, since the world has become more international and English is a so well-known language. Do you think it saves anything if the name is written "Fanni" and not "Fanny"? It would be nice to read honest opinions. smile

Haha, I guess I'm over -emotional since I cried yesterday a little because I felt that my name was ruined.

Sorry for writing this question in this discussion area, I'm not sure if this is the right area for this question.

Could you use a nickname

Honestly, OP. Enough with the overreaction. How on earth could your mother have been expected to know that an ordinary Finnish name was a slang term for genitals in another culture? Apparently my surname (the very ordinary equivalent of Smith in my home country) sounds like a Greek slang term for genitals.

I know twoFrench Fannys. The genital connotation never occurs to me.

I know a couple of Fanny's - it's a common french name. I wouldn't name a child that who was growing up in England, but amongst adults you'd have to be pretty small-minded and ignorant to not realise that it's a common name in other countries. I can quite easily separate the two in my head and certainly don't think 'yeurg what a horrible name'. The pronunciation in French is a different 'i' sound which helps!

My dd has a(French) friend called Fanny at university - no issues at all

It's popular in France too

Fanny St. Pierre or whatever

You need to watch The Irn Bru advert about the baby named fanny then you really wouldn’t

I'm aware that Fanny is a normal Scandinavian name. I would only think twice if it was a British person choosing the name for a baby.

We have French students each summer and fanny is a very common name. Please do t be upset by your name. It's fine.

We have French students each summer and fanny is a very common name. Please dont be upset by your name. It's fine.

Not a good choice. Neither is Minge/Minga.

If I heard of someone called Fanny or Fanni wouldn't think anything of it apart from thinking it was either an older person or someone from another country.
I wouldn't worry about it at all. It's a sweet name.
There are plenty of other names with 'other' meanings.
Dick
Willy
John
I'm sure there are more

Also, even when Fanny is used to mean genitals it's a 'cute' affectionate name and not a vulgar nasty one. Iykwim
I wouldn't worry about it at all.

to the person who said this connotation was a recent phenomenon, the very rude book Fanny Hill, which was banned for many years, was published in1748. the meaning was well known before then.
OP, if you are living / working in UK, I would change it slightly. how about Finny; hi, I'm Finny, from Finland, it's easy to remember.
good luck.

@happycamper11

I know someone who married a Mr Bottom last weekend. She did not take his surname.

Oh dear.

It's not 'very rude' or 'vulgar' at all - it's a silly term for female genitals the same as 'Willy'

Honestly maybe it might raise a smile when first seen/heard but that's it - anyone who thinks it's hilarious or keeps on about it needs a bit of a slap. It's horrid that you're sad about this.

By the way your English is fantastic especially your spelling so I definitely wouldn't worry about that.

My friends mum is French and the name Fanny is popular there too - she was equally as gutted when she realised she couldn’t use it! But you really, really can’t - it’s slang for vagina, as you already know, but it’s not obscure slang - it seems to be used by people of all ages and generations and everyone knows what it means! I’m so sorry to ruin your name but you really, really, REALLY can’t name a little girl Fanny/Fanni if there’s any chance she will live in the UK. She would definitely be laughed at. Sorry OP. It does sound lovely and the slang is really unfortunate!

Oh sorry - just seen that it’s your name! As an adult I don’t think it’s so bad, I mean a child would get playground comments but as an adult I really don’t think anyone would say anything. Plus you could always introduce yourself as Franni if you feel self conscious?

I with no less than 3 Fanny’s /Fannies 2 French and 1 German. The first few times I saw the name written down or used it I will admit I had a bit of an internal snigger but it’s just a perfectly normal name to me now I don’t think anything of it

A woman at work is called Fanny. She is E European. It’s just her name, no one sniggers about it.

I wouldn’t now give a child the name Fanny (shame, as it is rather nice) but everyone knows it is a name as well as a name for vagina / vulva.

It’s quite an affectionate term though, it isn’t a swear word version.

Sorry you are upset OP.

I live in London and the variety of names from a galaxy of languages and countries around the world often include some that sound close to ‘rude’ words.

Most mature intelligent adults can act in a mature intelligent way.

Be proud if your name: I like Fanni .

You cannot call you daughter Danny/Danni unless you want them to be a living joke.

Sorry, Fanny/Fanni! My phone autocorrected to Danny/Danni which would be a better choice actually.

I'm sorry so many people aren't reading this properly. For what it's worth it just makes me think of Fanny Gibert, who's been kicking ass at several bouldering competitions lately. It used to be a common choice here too, and I think because of that and because people are so weird about using regular words for genitalia, it became a way to refer to a woman's 'private parts'. But there are others, too. Minnie is another where I come from, but outside that area it doesn't have that meaning. Anyway, the fact that you're not from the UK or US gives your name a different tone to it, in my opinion. If someone is unkind, they would find another way to do it if your name weren't Fanny, so I would roll your eyes and move on. Name styles change all the time and they're changing a lot right now - it might come back into use soon. I know ppl on here are saying it's a bad idea to use it for a baby but hey, my Dad's been Dick since he was a kid and my child calls him Grandad Dick now :) you just say to yourself, doesn't matter, it's my name and that's that. That's how these things tip back into being ok to use, when people use them and wear them well.

JoyStir maybe pay more attention to the OP as well as to your autocorrect?

It's not that offensive, anyway. It's the equivalent of 'Dick' for Richard or 'Willy' for William.
In real life, I know a Dickie, a Willy and a Fanny (an older lady). It would probably be hard to be that at school now though. Could your girl be Frances at school and Fanny at home? Or is Fanny short for anything in Finland?

I don't think people working in English (regardless of location) with international customers of colleagues would consider it particularly funny because we're used to it.

I work with a man called Fatih, as others have pointed out Dikshit is a common last name, in one client we had a Jesus, Mary & Joseph all working in the same team and in Indonesia we came across the name Suparman