It works, and I think
Effie is a very natural nn for
Stephanie because the main accented syllable in "
Stephanie" is "Eff".
Steph / Stephie /
Stevie makes sense, and
Fannie makes a little sense but wouldn't be 'natural' unless the name was pronounced ste-FANN-ee. But
Effie is just as natural as
Steph IMO.
As long as you don't mind having 2 nicknames (your family will probably stick to
Stevie, for a while anyway), go for it.