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?</s>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.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, host: Fannie Mae is the Federal National Mortgage Association, or FNMA, so fenema(ph). Huh. That doesn't sound quite as nice as Fannie Mae.</s>MELISSA BLOCK, host: 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.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, host: 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.
Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are both creative acronyms for congressionally created home mortgage companies. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. became Freddie Mac and the Federal National Mortgage Association became Fannie Mae.