Names for Grandparents: What do you call yours?

[finn's mom]

I've always just called my grandparents "Grandma X" or "Grandpa X"...replacing X with their last name. David's mother is German, so she and David's dad will be "Oma" and "Opa" to Clara. And, my mother sent me an email the other day, asking what I thought of "Grammy" and "Grampy" for her and my dad. Apparently, that's what my dad called his grandparents, and I love it. As long as Clara agrees, that's what they'll be called. :) I know sometimes children come up with other names, based on what they find easiest to say. :)

So...I'm curious...what do you call your grandparents? And what do your children call their grandparents?

[Catty1]

On my dad's side, we also used "Grandma X(last name)". Never knew out grandads.

When we were younger, I THINK we 'had' to use "Grandmother X". I remember using that, but not often.

Mom's side? "Baba" :D

[Pembroke_Corgi]

I call my grandparents grandma and grandpa followed by their first names. Apparently my brother started this when he was really little, and now all the grandkids call my mom's mom "Grandma Betty." It just stuck!

I'm not sure what Lyra will call Eric's parents, but my mom is already "Grandma Peany-Butter." When I was in college I studied abroad in Russia, and my mom watched the dogs while I was gone. When I got home (after only a summer) Marta was so fat from all the peanut butter that she could no longer jump on the bed! My mom loves to spoil, and dogs are no exception... we started to joke that the dogs called her "Granda Peany-Butter" and my mom says Lyra can call her that, too. [Even though we have lived in a different state for over 3 years, Marta and Dell still get excited when I tell them Grandma Peany-Butter is coming].

[cassiesmom]

My brother's kids and my sister's daughter have always called them Grandma and Papa. They called their great grandmother Gigi (get it - great grandmother = GG). Which became The Geeger, the Geegster, the Geeginator, etc.

[gemini9961]

Oma and Opa for my mother's parents. Grandma and Pappy for my father's parents. I asked my parents to pick what they would like their grandchild to call them, same with my in-laws. I think my mother will go with Oma, she told me she doesn't want to be a Grandma. :p

Since my SIL is having a baby next week I suppose whatever names my in-laws choose for her will have to be the same for us since it will be the same set of grandparents (my in-laws).

[prechrswife]

My parents are Lao Lao (Mandarin for maternal grandmother) and Papa to our kids. My mother-in-law is Grandmama, and my late father-in-law was Granddaddy.

My maternal grandparents, who are still living, are Nanny and Paw (not sure how that spelling evolved from Pa, but it did). My paternal grandparents were Mamaw and Papaw.

[finn's mom]

How cute is Gigi?! That's neat! And easy to say! My ex's family called their grandparents Memaw and Pappy. :) Their great grandmother was Bemaw. I think my friend called her grandpa Tataw or something like that.

[sparks19]

I always called both sets of grandparents just grandma and grandpa... no name following.

Hannah doesn't call them anything yet but my in laws want to be called "Grammy" and "Granddad" although my MIL wants my FIL to change his to pop pop or something lol. she asked what my parents wanted to be called and I was kinda like "uhhh... just grandpa and grandma" I always thought everyone called their grandparents that unless it was like german or something where there is a name in that language that you call them lol.

so my mom is grandma, my dad is grandpa, my step dad is papa (that's what his grand kids call him so we followed suit) my MIL is Grammy and my FIL is granddad unless my MIL can convince him to change it lol

[CountryWolf07]

Papa and Nana. :) For both sides.

[kitten645]

Mima & Tata. It's a cultural thing I guess. My grandparents/parents are Argentinian. My neices and nephew call their American grandparents Granny and grandad.
Claudia

[Grace]

I always called my grandparents - grandma and grandpa last name.

Remember, G is a difficult letter for toddlers to pronounce. My grandkids call their maternal grandmother Mimi. I'm Bobbi (long story), and my husband is Doug, his real name.

[sparks19]

yeah Brians aunts grandchildren call her mom mom. although now she wishes she hadn't encouraged that because it gets complicated when her and their mom are in the same room

mama and mom mom sound a lot alike lol

[Karen]

My grandparents were called Grandma and Grandpa Lastname, and my maternal grandfather was called Bummy, as my eldest cousin couldn't pronouce Grandpa, so she called him Bumpa, which had evolved to Bummy long before I was born. Most of the kids in my hometown had one set of French-Canadian grandparents that were called Meme (pronounced MEMmay) and Pepe (PEPpay), and the other set Grandma and Grandpa.

The grandfather of the kids across the street was universally known as Pepe LaPlant, Nana and Papa were another set of grandparent names.

[Daisy and Delilah]

Mother's Parents: Nanny and Granddaddy

Father's Parents: Grandmama and Pop

All sadly deceased. I have a friend that's a great grandmother and her grandkids all call her just plain GG. :)

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I always called my grandparents "Grandma/Grandpa [last name]. I would have preferred it to be the same for Nathan, but my MIL insisted on being called Nana.

I still prefer adding the last name so my parents are "Grandma and Grandpa [last name]" and Justin's parents are "Nana and Grandpa [last name]".

[pomtzu]

I have no recall of either set of grandparents. My father's parents had passed before I was born, and my mother's passed when I was barely a toddler.

My kids called both sets of grandparents Grandma and Grandpa.

My granddaughter calls me Grammy. My ex and I split when she was very little and just starting to talk, but she called him Poppy. She calls her other grandparents Oma and Granddad.

My grandson calls me Grammy. He doesn't know my ex at all. He calls his other grandparents Mom-mom and Pop-pop.

If my ex comes up in a discussion between the adults and the grandkids are present, he is referred to as "your grandfather".

[Cataholic]

LOL, J calls my mom, Gay Gay. I don't know why, really. It beats what he used to call her- Gracky! LOLOL.

I think G-parents should be 'allowed' to choose the name they are called. To me, Grandma (last name) and Grandpa (last name) are just too cold and bland. Bring on the cuteness, the unordinary, etc. It usually tells a story and brings fond memories to those early years.

[sirrahbed]

to my kids, they used Nanny & PawPaw for my folks.

To our girl grandkids, we are Meemaw & PawPaw
to the boys we are simply gramma and grampa

their other grandmother is Mimi :)

[Pinot's Mom]

We were a little formal...
I knew three of my grandparents, who are all now long gone...
Grandmother Mary (my mother's Mother-never knew G-father on that side)
Grandmother Nellie (my father's Mother)
Bapa Harold (Nellie's husband, not my actual grandfather, she had been widowed and remarried, but he was the only one I knew).

Of course, to go with that, my mother was ALWAYS "Mother"-no nickname until I got older and wanted to antagonize her. ;)

[Asiel]

On my mum's side it was Grandmama, my granfather had died before we came along. On my fahter's side it was pepe and meme (pronounced the way Karen spelled it.)

[Pam]

All of my grandparents died before I could talk. :( With my own children they called my parents and hubby's parents (Nana and PopPop and Grandmother and PopPop respectively). My grandchildren call me Nannie (to be different from Nana) and my hubby is PopPop to them.

My co-worker, who is Italian, just had her first grandson. He will call her Nonna (when he learns to talk...LOL!) and her hubby will be Poppi.

[*LabLoverKEB*]

Mom's side: Grammy & Papa
Dad's side: Grampa fishin' buddy (long story!) and GranMaria (Grandma Maria)

Cute thread!:)

[Catherinedana]

Never knew my grandfathers, but we called my grandmothers "Grandma". If we were referring to them when they were not there, we used Grandma Costa or Grandma LaPlaca. If you called Grandma Costa "nana" or "nanny", you got a bop on the head! I think it's because they called her mother that (my great grandma who died just before I was born).

I don't have kids (except for my birds and I refer to my mom as "Grammy" to them. :D) but my cousin's kids call my aunt "Honey"! That's what she always called them when they were babies and they started calling her that back. . .pretty cute!

They may just eventually make up their own names so it might not matter what your folks want to be called!

[IRescue452]

Grandma and grandpa first name: my mom's parents
Grandma and grandpa last name: my father's parents

I don't know that there are many other options for people born and raised in WI. All the people I know that use names besides grandma and grandpa are from elsewhere.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I don't know that there are many other options for people born and raised in WI. All the people I know that use names besides grandma and grandpa are from elsewhere.

I was born in NY and lived there until I was 13. I never heard anyone call their grandparent anything other than grandma and grandpa (usually followed by their last name, sometimes their first) until I moved to Florida. I was truly shocked to learn all of the different names people called their grandparents down here. It was all very foreign to me.

[Daisy and Delilah]

My son calls my Mother, Garney, because that's all he could say. My daughter calls her Granny. They didn't get to meet my Dad.

They call their paternal grandparents Mamaw and Papaw.

[Lillycat]

......Gracky?

[Moesha]

We called our grandparents (my dad's parents) Grammie and Grampie when talking to them. I remember writing them letters spelling those words out. My mom's mom was Grammie too. My mom's dad had died before I was born. I was the first grandchild. When talking about the grandmothers, we used where they were from to tell them apart. There was Grammie Florida and Grammie Cape (Cape Cod). We didn't live near either one of them since we were in Tennessee. Once we grew up, we call them both Grandma. We were the only grandchildren on my mother's side since she was an only child. My dad had a brother that had two sons. They lived near Grandma Cape and their other grandparents. They used to call her Grammie Belle (her name is Rosa Belle) and her husband was Grampie Joe. Now that my brother has children, they call her Granny. My mom's mother died about 5 years ago, but they called her great grandma. My mom and dad are Grandma and Grandpa to them. Their other grandparents are Grandma and Poppy.

[Andie]

I called my Mom's parents just Grandma and Grandpa. When Mom married my (step)Dad they became Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Louie and Grandma Katie and Grandpa Ken. As us kids got into texting our only living grandmother (Bonnie) became G-ma. My Uncle Tom's kids called her Ding-Ding. Grandpa was Ding-Dong. Dustin calls his grandmother Nonnie. He has no idea where that came from.

I don't know what are children will call our parents. I guess I'll just let it come natural. Though Dustin just suggested Granny Num-Num. :rolleyes: :D

[Taz_Zoee]

I called my grandparents Grama and Granpa (last name). Although I never knew my fathers dad. We couldn't say just the last initial because they were the same letter. :p

My nieces call my parents Grama and Granpa and my SILs parents Nana and Papa. They called their stepgrandma Grama Billie, but she is no longer living. I'm actually not sure what they call their Nana's husband. I think just by his first name.

Bruce's nephew calls his mom Grammie and the other Grandmother Gran B. B for her last name. And like Cataholic said, they chose the names they wanted him to call them.

[blue]

Both of my grandfathers died when I was very young, both of my step grandfathers died before I could even meet them. My stepmoms Mom I have only met once and I simply called her Maam.

My dads mom, my brother and I couldnt pronounce our last name so we called her Granny Mo and it stuck, our moms mom we called grandma C.

[Genny]

I call my grandmother 'Booboo' and my Grandfather 'Paw-Paw'

[wolfsoul]

On my dad's side: Grandma Zilkie (Zilkie is the last name) and Papa.
On my mom's side: Grandpa Philpott (Philpott is the last name) and Grandma Gray (I couldn't pronounce "Joy" when I was a baby so I'd say "Gray" and it stuck). I couldn't call her Grandma Philpott because that was my great grandma. My other great grandma was Nanny.

[Cataholic]

......Gracky?

OMG, you don't remember that? LOL...it was a cross between gracky and graggy...

[Husky_mom]

this is really weird but I´ll try to best explain..(translation/meaning wise.. not weird as cataholic´s case..lol.. no offense just I found it fun ;))

the formal way is grandmother/ grandfather (abuela/abuelo) but I ´ve never liked that so i always went with a diminutive more cute way Grandma(only had one) (abuelita).. and now you wonder what about grandpas.. well.. one was Tata (a kind of mexican form of Papaw) and the other one was Yeyo (it was a morph from abuelo mispronounced.. turned into ayeyo.. then finalized as Yeyo)

now for my kids grandparents.. on hubby´s side they are grandma/grandpa or the grannies (abues)

and for my side they are Tito and Tita.. short for abuelita :confused: haha.. more like abuelitita.. an even smaller diminutive..lol.. this one stuck because the person that helps my mom with the cleaning referred to them like that to my kid and stuck.. they all love it though

[carole]

never had any grandparents, but my children call my parents nana and grandad, my great nephew call my sister nana and her hubby pop and my mother greatnana, when i become a grandparent i will be referred to as Nana too hopefully.

[Cataholic]

this is really weird but I´ll try to best explain..(translation/meaning wise.. not weird as cataholic´s case..lol.. no offense just I found it fun ;))


Maybe we will come up with a nickname for YOU! :D:p

[Husky_mom]

Maybe we will come up with a nickname for YOU! :D:p

lol.. kids so come up with the weirdest names aren´t they... haha..

completely off topic.. here we call bumps "bordos" but my kid called them "sales"..:confused::rolleyes:.. could be translated into salts or as in meaning the action to go out

[Lillycat]

........just chose to remember it for a teeny-tiny minute.......smile

[cassiesmom]

My oldest niece had trouble with "Aunt Elyse" when she was little - so I became "Cease" -- and that has stuck! My nephew called me Aunt Elyte ("aunta leet"), my second-youngest niece called me "Aunta ease" and my youngest niece actually called me grandma for a few months. Most of the time she would just point to whoever she wanted, though :) Over time they all have pretty much dropped the "Aunt" title. Whatever they want to call me (within reason) is fine with me!

Thanks,
Cease

[Marigold2]

I called my fathers parents Oma and Opa as we are German. I called my adoptive grandfather, Grandpa. My grandkids call me GG. I am gorgeous grandma. I like being a GG.

[catnapper]

Hubby and I are "grandmom" and "grandpop". I sorely wanted Cameron to come up with something cute for me, but he didn't. He called hubby "Gurk-gum" for the longest time and hubby hated it. We finally got him to pronounce grandpop properly.

Oh, an apparently Cam had a HUGE issue with calling his father's mom "Grandmom" he said he already had a grandmom and didn't want another. :eek: So she's now got her first name tacked onto the end of Grandma.


My coworker's mom insists on being "Glamma" as in glammor. :rolleyes: and she's serious. I am glad her mom didn't see or hear my reaction.

[karyn674]

For us Grandmom and Grandpas are Nanna and Nannu in Maltese, for short we call them both Nan

[Cataholic]

My oldest niece had trouble with "Aunt Elyse" when she was little - so I became "Cease" -- and that has stuck! My nephew called me Aunt Elyte ("aunta leet"), my second-youngest niece called me "Aunta ease" and my youngest niece actually called me grandma for a few months. Most of the time she would just point to whoever she wanted, though :) Over time they all have pretty much dropped the "Aunt" title. Whatever they want to call me (within reason) is fine with me!

Thanks,
Cease


Those are some good ones.

Slightly off topic (but you started it) I am totally fine with what people call me, as long as it is within reason. I was in J's classroom helping last Friday and the teacher asked what I wanted to be called and I said my first name. She said, "okay, well, would MS first name be fine?" LOL, I wanted to say not really, just call me first name, but figured I wouldn't be invited back to help out if I didn't get with the program.

Just not into all that Ms/Mr stuff. :)

[Edwina's Secretary]

Those are some good ones.

Slightly off topic (but you started it) I am totally fine with what people call me, as long as it is within reason. I was in J's classroom helping last Friday and the teacher asked what I wanted to be called and I said my first name. She said, "okay, well, would MS first name be fine?" LOL, I wanted to say not really, just call me first name, but figured I wouldn't be invited back to help out if I didn't get with the program.

Just not into all that Ms/Mr stuff. :)

I am a docent at a local historic site. We give tours to 40,000 fourth graders every year. That is lots of kids.

One of the more experienced docent told me - "always introduce yourself as Ms. Last Name - not your first name." So I changed to that and I found it DID make a difference in the behavior of the children.

Jo, perhaps that teacher knows this too and was trying to politely nudge you in that direction?

Kids in school know that a Mr/Ms is someone they must listen to, someone in charge. First name - not so much....

[Cataholic]

I am a docent at a local historic site. We give tours to 40,000 fourth graders every year. That is lots of kids.

One of the more experienced docent told me - "always introduce yourself as Ms. Last Name - not your first name." So I changed to that and I found it DID make a difference in the behavior of the children.

Jo, perhaps that teacher knows this too and was trying to politely nudge you in that direction?

Kids in school know that a Mr/Ms is someone they must listen to, someone in charge. First name - not so much....

I know why she did it, and she was very polite about it, lol, and it IS a good idea, I am sure. I just don't like it. I believe that a child can respect and love me just as easily when calling me by my first name as by my last name. BUT, I do recognize that this isn't done in an hour or two. So, from a practical sense, I get it, from a theory position, not so much.

At J's school, at least in the 3-6 grouping, it is Ms. first name...don't know about the 6-9 or 9-12 groupings. It was the same way in preschool. Maybe it is a new fad? Or, maybe the older groupings are different. One year at a time is our motto. <sigh>

[Edwina's Secretary]

I think there is a difference in one or two children and a classroom full of children.

I had a group of 22 4th graders on a tour yesterday and believe me...I was Ms. Lastname and needed that and more!

I have developed tremendous admiration for teachers - and have learned to quickly spot a group the teacher has under control and those that are not.

I also think parents who chaperone should be with a different group than the one their child is in. The quality of the tour is directly related to the authority of the chaperones.

(And...truthfully I do not care if the child loves me or not. I am there to help them learn something...)

[Cataholic]

It is probably a fault of mine, I really do want everyone to love and respect me. Always have. Probably always will.

And, for me, there isn't a whole lot of pleasure or purpose volunteering in a class other than my son's. It won't be long until I am not wanted in there by him!lol.

[Suki Wingy]

On my mom's side they are Nanny and Bumpah. I have no clue the story there. I call my dad's mom Char though, (her first name) because for some reason everyone on that side can't seem to call relations by anything than what they are to themselves, if that makes sense. (When my dad wants to talk to me about my grandmother, he refers to her as "Mom".)

[Medusa]

Three of my grandparents passed before I was born so I only knew my grandfather on my mother's side whom I called "Granpap".