# The evolution of "fanny" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 14, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219 "2011-12-14T20:24:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/21 "2011-12-15T08:26:07Z")
> [@Hokkaido\_Brit](#): > > Lots and lots of women in Victorian times were called Fanny - a very common name. It’s not unheard of even today. There was a famous British cookery writer and television chef named [Fanny Cradock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Cradock). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/22 "2011-12-15T08:35:46Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Question for UK and such countries: would a child get in trouble for saying “fanny” the way a child in the US would get for saying, say, “cunt” or something? Or is it not that bad? In Ireland it seems to have gone out of fashion. I can think of two times in my adult life I’ve heard it although it was very common when I was a little boy in the '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/23 "2011-12-15T08:40:10Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Question for UK and such countries: would a child get in trouble for saying “fanny” the way a child in the US would get for saying, say, “cunt” or something? Or is it not that bad? On some sort of unified scale of rudeness, it’s somewhere around the same level as ‘dick’. Not _quite_ as rude as ‘pussy’, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/24 "2011-12-15T08:41:38Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > ETA “bum bag.” Hilarious. Also, kind of gross. Two nations, separated by a single language. ‘Fanny pack’ sounds like a sanitary device, to UK ears. Funny really. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/25 "2011-12-15T09:39:06Z")
> [@Hokkaido\_Brit](#): > > In British slang there’s a phrase Sweet Fanny Adams, which has come to be a politer version of Sweet FA. I had a teacher who considered “Sweet Fanny Adams” a little too racy, and used the ‘euphemism’ “Sweet Felicity Arkwright”. ---
**Author:** ![SunSandSuffering](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@SunSandSuffering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunSandSuffering)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/26 "2011-12-15T09:50:48Z")
As kids we used to kill ourselves with laughter at the mention of “Aunt Fanny” in the [Famous Five novels by Enid Blyton.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Famous_Five_%28series%29) ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/27 "2011-12-15T10:03:03Z")
I suspect that a proper fanny didn’t evolve until at least when out ancestors started walking upright - most likely in high-heel sandals I would imagine. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/28 "2011-12-15T10:21:29Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > It’s not unheard of even today. There was a famous British cookery writer and television chef named [Fanny Cradock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Cradock). Let us not forget that she did her cooking show with her husband… Johnny. (For non-UKians, that’s a euphemism for condom.) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/29 "2011-12-15T10:48:08Z")
The author Fanny Flagg gets the odd titter as well. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/30 "2011-12-15T12:49:53Z")
There is a story about the filming of Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, stating that the American director told the British actor Burton to “Grab her by the fanny!”, which he did. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/31 "2011-12-15T12:54:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It wasn’t clear in the post that those were the earliest uses. Where are the cited from? The 1835-40 cite was in **Speaight** \*Bawdy Sngs of Music Hall, 76. The US fanny in 1919 was from something called _12th U.S. infantry_ ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/32 "2011-12-15T13:22:41Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Let us not forget that she did her cooking show with her husband… Johnny. > > (For non-UKians, that’s a euphemism for condom.) …Or that BBC presenter Frank Bough once (allegedly) said in a link to her show, “[I hope your doughnuts turn out like Fanny’s](http://bbs.scoobynet.com/non-scooby-related-4/523575-did-the-fanny-craddock-tv-doughnuts-incident-really-happen.html)” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hogfather65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@Hogfather65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogfather65)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/33 "2011-12-15T13:30:42Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > And vice versa for the equivalent British term, ‘bum pack’. _snicker_ Bum Bag - never used bum pack… ---
**Author:** ![Hogfather65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@Hogfather65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogfather65)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/34 "2011-12-15T13:32:56Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > In my family tree a few generations back there is a woman named Fanny. Imagine traveling to England with that name :X Famous English cook in the 70’s was Fanny Craddock ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/35 "2011-12-15T13:55:54Z")
> [@Hogfather65](#): > > Famous English cook in the 70’s was Fanny Craddock You don’t say? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/36 "2011-12-15T14:46:14Z")
Remember the lyrics to the theme song of The Nanny? She was working in a bridal shop in Flushing, Queens, 'Til her boyfriend kicked her out in one of those crushing scenes. What was she to do? Where was she to go? She was out on her fanny… Trust the Brits to drive on the wrong side of the road. ---
**Author:** ![auRa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@auRa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auRa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/37 "2011-12-15T15:23:30Z")
Any Brits I host in Helsinki tend to get a giggle out of a local restaurant next to Sinebrychoff Park. The food is good, it’s great for brunch, and the atmosphere’s nice but…[well](http://www.fanny.fi/fanny-bar-kitchen). ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/38 "2011-12-15T15:29:22Z")
> [@auRa](#): > > Any Brits I host in Helsinki tend to get a giggle out of a local restaurant next to Sinebrychoff Park. The food is good, it’s great for brunch, and the atmosphere’s nice but…[well](http://www.fanny.fi/fanny-bar-kitchen). That reminds of when one of the king of Sweden’s former girl friends started a restaurant in, I think, London and named it after a pet form of her name Christina: **Titti’s**. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/39 "2011-12-15T15:31:45Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > It’s not rude per se, just the subject matter that is ‘tittilating’. It’s a juvenile word, the kind that one would _expect_ a child to use, and that parents of a female child might give her to use refer to her genitals. Not in my experience. As a female child, if I’d said “fanny” in front of my parents, I’d have expected to be told off for saying a rude word. Both it and willie[1] were our childish swear words. I don’t think we knew the grown up versions, so to us these were the height of rudeness, and yes, if a teacher had to read them out, the class would dissolve into hysterical laughter. [1] Penis. We loved the film Free Willy over here, oh yes 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219/40 "2011-12-15T17:32:22Z")
> [@hermette](#): > > Not in my experience. As a female child, if I’d said “fanny” in front of my parents, I’d have expected to be told off for saying a rude word. Both it and willie[1] were our childish swear words. Ma’s out, pa’s out, let’s talk rude: pee poo belly bum drawers. Out of interest, what were you told to call yours? I think my sisters were told to use fanny (1970s) as opposed to other friends I’ve discussed this with who used “foo foo”, “patata” (Italian for “potato”), and “penol blein” (Welsh for “front bottom”)! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-fanny/606219.md?page=3)