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Fanny

#6,396 in 2025Girls' name

Frankish, through Frances

Fanny has been given to 9,654 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #6,396 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1916, with 241 recorded.

Babies named Fanny, 2025

1 in 184,000

Fanny over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Fanny: meaning, origin, and history

Frankish, through Frances

English

What Fanny means

Fanny belongs to the name family reached through Fanny → Frances. Its meaning is “Frankish”.

Origin, language, and formation

Fanny is used in English, Danish, French, German and Swedish. Its origins include English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Frances and Stéphanie.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Fanny is pronounced /ˈfæni/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,654 girls were recorded with the name Fanny between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 241 in 1916; its best national rank was #183 in 1880.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #9,782 in 2020 to #6,396 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,228 in 2015 to #6,396 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Fanny?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 184,000
18 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 89,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#6,396
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
127,662 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Fanny sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 127,662 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Fanny. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Fannys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Fanny was born before 1924 — so the typical Fanny is around 101 today.

Median birth year
1924
About 101 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
18.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
7.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
2,738
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 18.0% of all recorded uses (1,735).

Is Fanny rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−1,198
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+3,386
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−3,168
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.35×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
7.5%
Peak was 1916 (241)
Years since peak
109
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
36.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#183
1880

Spellings of Fanny

Fanny is not the most common spelling — Nancy is, with 29.6% against Fanny's 0.28%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Fanny is used

Across 1910–2025, Fanny was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 7,143 girls, against 1 in 31,776 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

014 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 7,143
  2. 2Kentucky1 in 14,286
  3. 3California1 in 25,000
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 25,000
  5. 5West Virginia1 in 25,000
  6. 6Connecticut1 in 33,333
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 33,333
  8. 8Georgia1 in 50,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Fanny has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Fanny around the world

Where Fanny ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1900–2025
    #987
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #454
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #2,256
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1946–1968
    #679
    in 1968

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Fanny

People whose public names include Fanny, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Fanny in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Fanny. Linked forms have their own page here.

FaniFanyaFannieFanniFanélie

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Fanny by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#6,396
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 3,386
Best rank ever
#183
1880
Peak year
1916
241 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,654
Count in 2025
18

Names similar to Fanny

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

GinnySunnyFantaFancyBunnyFannieJohnnyBonnyDannyHennySonnyJennyPennyLennyAnnyBennyJannyKennyAriannyGennyJinnyEliannyFannyeMelanny

Names with a curve like Fanny

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Fanny, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AlvinaLuraOnaDessieAlphaDovieVestaTessieOmaHesterVinaLyda

Sibling names for Fanny

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Fanny

Top names of 1916, Fanny's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880More old lady namesGirls' names starting with FJane Austen NamesMusical Names