May 5, 2010

The Etymology of Fannie Mae

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Where did Fannie Mae get its name? It is, obviously, a nickname derived from its real name, the Federal National Mortgage Association, but why did this particular part of FDR’s New Deal alphabet soup get anthropomorphized and not any of the others? It’s not as if the WPA was known as Willie Pad or the TVA was known as Tammie Vat, after all. Ben Zimmer gets us part of the way to an answer:

Fannie Mae started out as a government agency back in 1938, as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. Though it was officially known as the FNMA, it was almost immediately given its feminine nickname as a playful acronym. The July-Dec. 1938 issue of Architectural Forum explained that the agency had already been “nicknamed ‘Fanny May’ by Washington’s bureau wags.”

Fine. But why did Washington’s bureau wags nickname it Fanny May? Whatever the answer, it must have happened quickly. The NMA only became the FNMA in May 1938, and the July-Dec issue of Architectural Forum must have gone to press by June at the latest. So that means the wags began their wagging within a few weeks.

It seems like the name must be somehow related to the Fannie May candy company, right? But according to their site, they were still a strictly midwestern company in the 30s. Did the nickname originate with some wag originally from Chicago? Or what? Maybe this is completely lost in the mists of time and oral history. ProQuest provided no clues. If there’s any kind of further explanation, I’ve been unable to find one.

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