XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: jcb@inf.ed.ac.uk   
      
   On 2013-11-20, Paul S  Person  wrote:   
   > Some years back there was a discussion here on the British meaning of   
   > "fanny", and how using it as a name was considered a bit off-color in   
   > Britain. This was specifically in regard to Fanny Brice, IIRC.   
   >   
   > In my endless traverse of Durant's /The Story of Civilization/, I have   
   > encountered a note of a female author in the time of Johnson (yes,   
   > /that/ Johnson) named "Fanny Burney", apparently by her father.   
   >   
   > Since it hardly seems likely that a father would name a daughter   
   > "Fanny" if the word actually had, at the time, the meaning alleged, it   
   > would appear that the meaning alleged developed some time later, after   
   > the 18th Century.   
      
   The first record in the OED for this usage is 1879.   
      
   Fwiw, I think you can still use Fanny as a name, though I don't know   
   any of my generation. "fanny" meaning genitals is not common, though   
   probably widely recognized, would be my impression.   
   Fanny Cradock was a celebrity TV chef in my childhood, and a quick   
   google shows a number of Fannies in UK universities - they're mostly   
   French, but seem to see no need to use a different name here.   
   It's a fairly "polite" word; not like "cunt", or even "quim". I don't   
   think I would have been told off at school for using it (well, apart   
   from the issue of why I might be talking about it!). It's no worse,   
   and probably much better, than the situation with "Dick" as a name.   
      
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