Counting that little rascal kid, I have known of five or six different people nick-named spanky. Try as I may, I can’t come up with any physical similarities among these people. I plugged the name into a search engine, but got flooded with too many spanking sites to be able to research this at work. Anybody have an idea how one comes to acquire this nickname? Certainly not by choice, I would hope. To me, Spanky is right up there with Fatty & Smelly on my list of cute sounding nicknames.
I used google.com to search [spanky nickname] and got lots of hits without a spanking :). It seems to be a common nickname.
Maybe they all spank a lot.
Nothing really add to the OP but there is also a Spanky MacFarlane (don’t know if I spelled that right) formerly of a band called Spanky and Our Gang (they rocked) and I believe she took Mama Cass’s place after she died in the Momma’s and the Papa’s (sp again?). One of the guys in the band was a real hottie. I would like to find out where he is now to see what he looks like. 
Sounds like a new thread to me.
HUGS!
Sqrl
Depending on your gender, Attrayant, you could call me Spanky …
:gd&r:
SqrlCub, that is interesting because George “Spanky” McFarland was in “Our Gang”, the little rascals mentioned in the OP. I guess it was too good of a name for the band to pass up.
Barring sexual fetishism, I would venture to guess that “Spanky” would be bestowed on someone fitting Webster’s second definition of “spank:” To move quickly, dashingly, or spiritedly.
Sua: I had always suspected as much.
These adverbs most definitely do not fit any of the Spankys I’ve known. Furthermore, I would put it past 99.98% of the general public to know this meaning of the word “spank” right off the tops of their heads.
This might be the origin of the Rascal’s nickname, but I seriously doubt that anybody within the last 20 years or so was pinned with the nickname “Spanky” due to their sprightliness. How could that happen, anyway? Let’s say you notice that your son moves quickly, dashingly, or spiritedly. Do you turn to your spouse and say “Quick honey- look up the word “spank” and see if there is an obscure secondary meaning that might apply to our son!”
There was one person in my class who was called Spanky and it was a derogatory term.
(“Our Gang” short) Free Eats marks an important first: the debut of George Robert Phillips McFarland–nicknamed “Spanky” by his mother because that’s what she was always threatening with to keep him out of mischief; “Spankee-spankee, mustn’t touch,” she’d warn.
–Our Gang: The Life and Times of The Little Rascals by Leonard Maltin
I remember seeing a brand of peanut butter called “Spanky’s” – and there was a black female character in Doonesbury called Spanky. I’d be willing to bet that all post-1930 occurrences of that name were inspired by the Our Gang character.
I always thought that it was a nickname given to people who were always gettin into trouble. Cause of the possibility of getting a spanking.
I had a roommate in college who would mastrubate violently when he thought I was asleep. By his senior year his nickname was “Spanky.” Draw your own conclusions 
.
I, too, believe it refers to “spanking” the proverbial monkey.
I knew a guy nicknamed spanky while I was in college. His nickname came about because he seriously looked like “spanky” from Our Gang. The resemblance was eerie.
I used to work with a guy who felt it necessary to inform us whenever he had gone home for lunch to jerk off. Sure, real smart, tell a bunch of wise-ass guys something like that. We immediately started calling him Spanky.