Traditional nickname Fran feels a bit bland and Fanny, though possessing some eighteenth century charm, is unusable in Britain and Australia where it is slang for female genitalia.įrances is the endearing badger in the childhood favorite Bedtime for Frances and other Frances books.Īmong well known bearers are Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor in the Roosevelt era actresses McDormand, Dee, Farmer, and Fisher journalist Fitzgerald and writers Burney and Hodgson Burnett.įrances was the abandoned first name of Judy Garland, Dinah Shore, and Dale Evans. Salinger's Franny and Zooey, Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Frankie in A Member of the Wedding, Baby in Dirty Dancing, and Gidget in Gidget. Some of the best known pop culture bearers of the name were known by diminutives-the Franny of J.D. Frances (Mother) Cabrini was the first American citizen to be canonized.

It's been chosen in recent years by such stylish parents as Jimmy Fallon and Amanda Peet (who nicknamed her daughter the spunky Frankie).įrances was a favorite of the Tudor aristocracy after being given to Henry VII's granddaughter. Until the seventeenth century, the spellings Frances and Francis were used interchangeably for both sexes.įrances, a soft and gentle classic, last popular a hundred years ago, seems to be on the cusp of a possible revival, along with other such neglected quiet and serious names. Franciscus, meaning 'Frenchman,' was taken from the Germanic tribe the Franks, which got its name from the francisca, the axe they used in battle. Frances is the feminine form of Francis, the English variation of the Latin name Franciscus.

Frankie and zooey