The Civil War cannon connotation of Humpty Dumpty probably no older than the 1968 children's opera by Richard Rodney Bennett. In any event, the gun would have been named after the character in the rhyme rather than v-v.

The transatlantic differences re meaning of fanny have been adumbrated above, but not those of muffin [see Q's early post above], which in US means a sweet sort of cupcake or small bun, but here has always meant a sort of toasted teacake [known in US as an English muffin] ~~ see Mr Grimwig's enquiry as to whether there would be muffins for tea in Oliver Twist. In [somewhat dated?] British school slang also it can mean an inferior player of a ball-game, as mentioned above by gargoyle 11 apr 05 re baseball in US.

~Michael~