Why do Fannie May and Freddie Mac have such silly names?

Question

Was this some oldtime banker's idea of humour?

Answer 1

retarded parents

Answer 2

Here's a link which will explain it better than I can

Answer 3

As a non-American I was amazed when these names came up. Fannie May sounds like a cathouse and Freddie Mac

an imitation Macdonalds joint. The last thing I would have thought of was finance!

Answer 4

Fannie Mae is short for Federal National Mortgage Association whose initials, FNMA, gave it the name.

Freddie Mac is short for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Again, FHLMC became "Freddie Mac." Kind of a stretch, but alas.

Answer 5

sounds better

Answer 6

Suena a algunos intregrantes de un conjunto de rock inglés Brian y Mercury

Regards from Recoleta

Answer 7

The names are acronyms for the Federal Mortgage association (Fannie Mae) which is now the Fannie Mae Federal and the Federal Home Loan Association (Freddie Mac) which now is the Freddie Mac Federal.

Answer 8

Parents were stoned out of there minds.

Answer 9

lol. when i first heard it i thought of f***y May candy and Berny Mac lol.

Answer 10

Dream on Dummy

Answer 11

It could be that they named it after themselves, when they started the Company.  Or someone they are fond of in their family.  Or they just played around with some of their, or family names came up with these combinations.

Or could it be that put it up as a question in Y/A, and chose the names that they liked best?

It was most probably the first answer.  Y/A was not around yet when they started these companies.  Just wanted to put a little humor into my answer.