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sallie mae = student loans. fannie mae and freddie mac are home mortgage only.

Did all the financial institutions in the States get together to come up with the most ridiculous sounding names?

They're attempts to phonetically sound out the acronym.

FNMA = Federal National Mortgage Association = "Fannie Mae"

SLMA = Student Loan Marketing Association = "Sallie Mae"

Attempts that gives them "folksy" small-bank sounding names.