Fanny for a girl?

[LemonZebras]

Hi everyone,

I’m expecting a baby girl. My husband is French and is insistent that he wants to name our daughter after his aunt who raised him - Fanny! It’s a common French name, but the baby will be born and raised in the UK.

Am I unreasonable to say no and to worry that she would be bullied or made fun of? My husband thinks I’m overreacting and that the slang word is barely used nowadays and that not many people know of it.

I will be showing him this thread with the different responses.

Thank you

When did you last meet a Willie or a Dick under the age of sixty?

Willies and Dicks will get sniggers too.

Oh please don’t. Her life wont be worth living when
she starts school. Even adults will struggle
to hold in laughter

One of my kids friends has a Granny Fanny, believe me they all still know why this is hilarious.

It doesn't sound like that if you say it right.

There was a cafe called Fanny- Anne’s . If you must at least double barrel it so she can be called Anne or the like.

Sounds fine to me

Fanny, Foo-Foo for short

Only if he agrees any boy you may have can be Dick after your uncle Richard....

This would border on child abuse as you set them up for a childhood of anguish.

I nannied in France for a little girl called Fanny. Her name though was really Stephanie.

Do not do this to your child. Use Fanny as a middle name or find out what other names Aunt Fanny had (of course, they might be worse...)

I just asked my teenage 13-year-old boy and he giggled and said don’t do it to the child… he knows well what it means

Good god no.
Ask your husband to picture a vagina, it’s vulva flapping. Now tell him that is what is going to spring into most English people’s heads when they hear her name each time.

He might be French but this child will live in the UK and naming them Fanny would basically be child abuse.

I will be showing him this thread with the different responses.

“Different” responses :) You’ll win this one Op.

Only if you want your child to be set up for years of teasing, sniggering, comments of a vulgar nature so that her childhood is ruined and she changes her name as soon as she is able. Does he actually know what the word means in the UK?

Maybe spend the day calling him schlong . See if he likes it

There is so much more diversity now and children don't take the mick out of other children's names, and I know this because I have a nearly 4 year old and my SIL has a SIL who is a TA.
HTH

Probably also worth saying that Fanny is not a common French name any more. It's very 80s and therefore considered pretty dated, Anglophone innuendo aside.

Ask him about calling her minou (please check the spelling) it's French for kitten or pussy, and pussy in both senses of the word.

It would be cruel to call a child Fanny in the UK.

I went on a French exchange when I was 12 in 1988, the girl I was paired with was called Fanny. Poor Fanny did rather get the piss taken out of her. Don't do it.

Willie and Dick are not fine. No one this century calls their kid Dick.

You can't call her Fanny. I don't even think it's a name in the UK anymore (as in actually used for babies in the last 40? years) because it's so universally means female genitlia. I tried to think of another slang term to use there and all I could think of was fanny. Possibly 'twat'?

The ONS lists how many babies have had a name since 1996. They only count if more than 2 have had the name in a year. There are no results for Fanny. Hopefully that will make your DH realise it really is that bad.

Nooooo!!!!

Haha - nicely done. FWIW I've been a teacher for twenty years and this is usually my view. I once taught a child of Vietnamese heritage called Phúc and no-one turned a hair.

I make an exception to my usual view for the name Fanny. It is a terrible, terrible idea.

Yes, but c'min how many people in England would 'say ut right?' They'd just be beside themselves with My Fanny.

@LemonZebras

tell him not be so ridiculous & cruel. You cannot. And a baby fanny in England & that's where he's living!

Noooooooooooooo!