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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: mark.r on Tuesday 12 August 08 08:07 BST (UK)
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Hi the name Fanny is it short for another name or not Thanks.Mark
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Not necessarily :-\ though it is a derivative of Frances I think
:) mare
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http://www.whatsinaname.net/php/search.php?action=search2&search_name=fanny
Gadget :)
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Thanks for the quick reply.Mark
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My older sister always called me Fanny, and I've hated it ever since!
Frances
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I have a gg grandmother whose birth was registered as Fanny, but in all census, marriage & death certs she is Frances.
Nashua
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Thanks alot for the help.Mark
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My great aunt Frances was always known as Fanny
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Looking just today on birth records a lot of females with a first name registered as Fanny.
Julie
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Looking just today on birth records a lot of females with a first name registered as Fanny.
Julie
My Grandmothers sister was Fanny thats all she was ever known as.So I think it is a name in its own right.
Celia
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Hi,in my family going back to c1855 there was sisters
Fanny and Frances,we were treating them as the same person for a while.Still can't find Frances past 1901 but that is another story.
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My guess is it started out as an abbreviation, but like some names today (e.g Daisy or Ellie) some people decided that was the version they preferred so didn't see any point in registering the full name only to never use it
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;D that would probably be a common confusion ricoba... to treat Fanny and Frances as one person... from our viewpoint ;D
Fanny certainly was popular ... not so much today of course ;)
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No!
My name is fanny and its my real whole name!
But it can sure be a short name for stéphanie (wich more common in french)
So ya!!! :)
Fanny
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My great grandmother was christened Fanny Mary Ann so definately a `Proper name` a little like `Nellie` this is often used as a shortened name my daughter is Helen and often called Nell
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Mark.r
Fanny is a name in my family too. Not quite as popular as it once was.
yn9man
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Fanny is definitely short for and interchangeable with Frances.
I have some Mallys in my tree and wondered if it's short for anything although it was a proper baptismal name.
Talking of baptisms- we had an auntie, always known as Mollie, who was in fact baptised Marion because the vicar ( West Yorkshsire in about 1915) refused to accept that Mollie was a suitable name!!
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Vicars, eh? You just reminded me of the expression on a nun's face at school when we were asked what name we were going to take for our confirmation and one girl said 'Petronella'........
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What was wrong with that? :)
Saint Petronilla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Petronilla)
(edited to make link clearer)
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I know! How unreasonable. There could have been lots of potential saints called Petronella, for all she knew!
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I have a relative called Fanny Brain. She was from Oxfordshire. Yes I also say Fanny is a name in its own right but is a short name for Frances.
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Fanny is one of those names which can be a shortened version of Frances or Francine but is also a name in it's own right.
So when looking for records you do have to think outside the 'Fanny' name.
For years I was looking for records of my g/g/aunt Ellen, only to finally realise her real name was Eleanor ;D
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My great gran was born Ellen but was known as Helen and in 1911 census she was Nellie.
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SG - that is so funny - I'd never heard of her until now either! And obviously, the poor girl who wanted to use the name hadn't either, or she could have stood up for her choice instead of being steered towards the more usual Margaret, Mary, Bridget list! You learn something new every day.....
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In my own research when I've come across the name Fanny it has been short for Frances. However, I believe it could also be a diminutive of the name Ann or Anne.
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I have come across a few Russian jewish ladies who were born Feiga or Feige (im not sure how it was pronounced)
They gradually started using Fannie or Fanny especially around wprld war 1
(never Frances ) so it must have seemed the best angliscised version
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I have a lady in my family tree named Tryphena.
Her baptism record record has her as Tryphena and on her childrens' birth certificates she is Tryphena.
But in all the census records she is Fanny and she is even Fanny on her second marriage certificate and her death certificate.
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My great, great, great grandmother was always known as Fanny. On her baptism, her name is spellt Phanny. I noticed that one of her father's sisters was also called Phanny. Only on her marriage certificate is she referred to as Frances, everywhere else such as on her children's baptisms and on censuses she is Fanny. On her death certificate there is an added note at the end where the registrar had assumed she was Frances, and in order to change her name from Frances to Fanny he had to call back the original Informant, her son-in-law, and also her daughter, to both put their marks against the change of name. It looks as though the registrar wasn't accepting the son-in-law's word for it and wanted the daughter to also sign that her mother's name was Fanny and not Frances.
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One of my direct ancestors was baptised as Fanny. Her mother was Frances.
She was married as Fanny, but sometimes in the census was know as Frances.
All the children's baptisms were with mothers name as Fanny.
Her death registration was also as Fanny.
A Chesters