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It's unfortunate that Fanny is slang. I guess it's technically usable as a nickname, but who'd want to be called it? No one I know. As a full name, I don't think so. It'd seem incredible.
I'd like it better spelled Fanni or at least Fannie.
I think it's for Frances.
I think Dick seems not as bad because of being more common and still borne by well known men, so people can picture a man, rather than it just being a word hypothetically used as a name.
I don't think Dicks get teased because they're all adults and it'd be too juvenile to tease them to their face.
I doubt anyone would accept it as their nickname now, though, unless it was kind of a joke, like when a guy gets a 'bad' nickname from his friends' raillery.

American here.

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I think Fanny is usable here in the US, especially as a nickname for Frances, Francesca, etc.. It doesn’t have a vulgar meaning here. In fact I only know about the vulgar meaning because my boyfriend is Scottish.

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Dick really isn’t usable here anymore. People think of a penis when they hear that word and that’s pretty much all it is to people. It’s also a slang term for a rude person. Just no.

I personally don't think Fanny is that bad. In many continental European countries, the name Fanny is alive and well. I didn't even realize it was a vulgar term until I found this site.

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Fanny is probably best avoided in the UK, although in the US it might be usable. Americans don't really refer to the buttocks as "fanny" anymore.

This message was edited 8/9/2018, 11:22 AM

I like the name Fanny. I have a cousin with that name and in Swedish we pronounce it "funny". It's usable here.

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I have only met one person called Dick; it's not very common here and nowadays, when almost everyone in Sweden knows English, it makes people giggle...

In Australia, definitely not for both.

I think Fanny might be usable in the US, but as a nickname only. Over here “fanny” is old fashioned slang for buttocks, but it’s something said to be cute or funny, not vulgar.

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Dick doesn’t work. All the guys I know with the name are older.

I think Fanny seems ridiculous as a full name, but only slightly more ridiculous than Hattie as a full name seems to me.

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As a nickname, it'd seem a bit unfortunate (because of the slang; I also think of "fanny packs" which were the epitome of uncool when I was a kid, plus Fannie Mae makes me think of mortgages and foreclosures) and/or affectedly quaint: I'd wonder, do the parents just love Mansfield Park that much?

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If American parents picked Fanny as a NN over Franny for something with Fran* in it, I think it'd be seen as odd (not generally in a charming way, but I suppose anything is possible). I'd pick Fantasia as a longer name for Fanny, if I had to.

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Dick is a joke. It's not usable. (About on the level of Butch, maybe?)
I'm pretty sure people where I live would use Richard (either no NN or Rick) or Dixon or Deitrick instead, even if they secretly liked the name Dick.

This message was edited 8/9/2018, 4:19 PM

I can’t imagine Dick or Fanny being usable anymore. Dick in particular is used commonly now, whereas Fanny has faded a little, but still not enough in my opinion. They might work as a nn, if they just happened and didn’t become a teasing point then fair enough, but definitely not the best idea as full names. Having grown up with the Famous Five books I actually still like Dick, but the fallout from even saying ‘I like Dick’ would be phenomenal.

It's usable in parts of Canada at least. I know a photographer named Fanny. I also know plenty of Stephanies and Françoises who go by Fanny.

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I've considered naming a daughter Stephanie nn Fanny. I think it's so cute. I do hesitate though because what if she wants to visit the UK, Australia, New Zealand, or another country where it means something bad? I'd rather avoid that.

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Dick is totally unusable. It's ok on older men, but I can't imagine a little boy named that or nicknamed that. He'd definitely be teased. In school, there was this sexist boy who was a total jerk, and everyone called him Dick instead of Richard as an insult.

The Famous Five series of children's books by Enid Blyton contained a character named Dick who had an aunt named Fanny. And this seems to have been fine in the 1940s to maybe the early 60s, but as Using Rude Words became more frequent, kids began to snigger. And there's a lot of controversy in fandom, apparently, because these names and others have been updated/sanitised in new editions: Fanny could I suppose be Frannie and Dick could be Rick. That kind of thing. Some traditionalists prefer the originals, of course.

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So, yes. I've known lots of Frances people but they were always Fran. And Richard becomes Ricky or Rick where I live. I would be surprised to find either Fanny or Dick used as full names, even a century or so ago, but I've been surprised before. And if I named a child Frances, I wouldn't use a nn; same with Richard. I just like the full forms better.

And another thing

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Could have been better phrased ... oh well. Is it true that Americans use or used to use 'fanny' to mean the body part on which one sits, rather than the body part through which females pee and have sex and babies? That's the UK usage, or was, and we mostly use UK here though US usage is moving in fast. Dick is pretty universal, I think, and so perhaps are Willie and Rod. DH Lawrence used 'John Thomas' in the same way, but I've never heard it IRL.

I think it's fine in other European countries and was probably charming here in the 18th century, when multiple members of my family were called Fanny, all short for Frances. But it would be very awkward to have in the UK now, unless it was a joke nn or a stage name.
I've never met anyone called Dick. I do have a cousin called Gaye, which is probably about as usable here now as Fanny and Dick.