How Fannie, Freddie Got Their Names

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

You may have been wondering one more thing about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Where did they get those interesting names that make the institutions sound almost like long-lost Southern cousins?

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

We've been talking about them by their first names, Fannie and Freddie. It might seem strange that two pillars of the financial industry have such childlike names, kind of like calling Bank of America Billie Joe. Well, as it turns out, those names come from acronyms.

NORRIS: Fannie Mae is the Federal National Mortgage Association, or FNMA, so fenema(ph). Huh. That doesn't sound quite as nice as Fannie Mae.

BLOCK: You can get it, FNMA, FNMA, Fannie Mae. But when it comes to Freddie Mac, that's the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, which means FHLMC, FHLMC, FHLMC. I don't see how they get from there to Freddie Mac.

NORRIS: Well, that's history now. It is Freddie Mac. Back in 1997 the company gave up its acronym for good. Its name is changed officially to just that, Freddie Mac. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.