Call us anything other than "Granny" and "Gramps"

My wife's son is about to become a father -- Lily is due around Thanksgiving. That makes us first-time grandparents. It also makes his father and stepmother first-time grandparents, and his wife's 2 sets of parents will be grandparents as well.

We're looking for alternative names. My heritage is primarilly Irish, with English, Jewish, French and Italian strains. My wife is Irish, Scottish, English and Chocktaw (Native American).

So suggestions, anyone? If necessary, please provide the phoenetic pronunciation as well.

Thanks in advance,
WHL

My mom is "Kiki" and the mother-in-law is "Nana" to my niece and nephew.

My mom's husband is "Pops" and I called my grandfather "Grandbob."

Both pairs of my grandparents were grandma and grandpa. I think it was because my grandmothers have the same first name that we called them Grandma or Grandpa Lastname as opposed to, say, Grandma Ruth.

My (Jewish) friend Rachel calls at least one pair of grandparents Bubbe (grandmother) and Zayde (grandfather).

This is very good, but I want MORE!!!!

I found a site that translates English into Vulcan and Klingon (and a few others). Apparently there is no translation for either "Grandmother" or "Grandfather" in any of those languages.

Anyone happen to know the Celtc translation?

My son calls my parents "Pa" and "Grammy"; I'm not quite sure how those evolved. I called both sets of my grandparents "Grandpa" and "Grandma".

In ASL (American sign language), these are the signs for grandmother and grandfather:

Well, how about Nana and Pop-Pop?

Congratulations, btw.

This will probably not be any help to you, but it's my favorite random grandparent anecdote. A friend of mine adopted a child from Russia. My friend's father's family was of Hispanic heritage. With this interesting multinational mix, the kid grew up calling his grandparents "Babushka and Abuelo."

in cornish: Grandfather is tas-gwyn & Grandmother mamwyn (tas & mam being father & mother respectively)
You can pronounce them as you wish (ie pretty close to the way I have spelt them) since we only have best guesses as to 'real' pronunciation. (see http://www.omniglot.com/writing/cornish.htm for examples)

To be fair though I just called my grandparents Grandma and Grandad

I like the German for Grandma and Grandpa, Oma and Opa.

I've heard big papa for my uncles from their grandkids.

#6 - My mother is Nana and my father was Pop-Pop! Are we related, amancine? :o)
My mother-in-law was Grammy.

Oh, and a hearty CONGRATS, WholeHouse! :o)

Wow! You guys are the greatest! Keep then coming, though ...

We're kind of anxious about the whole new being-a-grandparent thing. They live an almost 5-hour drive away, so we're not likely to see them all that often, and unfortunately, no trains pass anywhere near where they live.

And, dont think badly of me for this, but I have concerns -- at the wedding, back in May, under her gown, the bride wore faux Ostrich-skin steel-toed boots. That set the tone for a whole lot of Jeff Foxworthy jokes going through our minds.

After admitting I have no idea who Jeff Foxworthy is I do have to say the idea of the boots give me the giggles.
On the other hand since I believe in boots for the purpose of feeling good about yourself (in my case kneehigh leather ones under my suit) I'll be sympathetic

We have the same kind of family set up and my kids called the Grandparents: Paw- Paw, Pap-paw, Mam- maw, Gramma, Grandma, Grandpa and Gramppa. Each grandparent had decided during my pregnancy what to be called and oddly enough our kids picked out there own grandparent-handle themselves while learning to talk. Like my mom who was determined to be called anything but Mam-maw tried to teach my daughter to call her everything but that. Then one day a one year old Missie used it and then called her that right up until she was four and a half years old. To this day we have no idea where she heard it b/c she was the one and only grandchild at the time.

Jeff Foxworthy - former computer programmer who turned to doing standup comedy when he got laid off. His tag line is: "You might be a Redneck if..."

our family used the traditional anglosaxon white people's "gramma" and "grandpa"; but when relationships began to complex "gigi" was the name for the great grandmother. But I sure like Opa and Oma. I think I may have to try to brainwash my grandson - oh, wait, he's 17! too late, per chance?

Congratulations. Babies are the best

When I was little, I called my mother's mother "Maggie" (close as I could get to "Grandma") and my mother's father "Old Dad" (my father was "Dad", so what else could my grandfather be?) Apparently, these names were big hits, because people from all over (even outside the family) called my grandmother "Maggie" until her dying day. And, Old Dad loved his name and insisted that everyone call him that. I'm not suggesting that you use these names, mind you. I'm thinking you might want to listen to the sounds that your grandbaby comes up with when (s)he starts talking to you and then see what you think of them. You might end up with brand new identities.

My parents are Gran and Pop to my nephew.

In the Chinese dialect I'm researching, your father's parents are your Yeyè and Nonó, and your mother's parents are your Agöng and Abû (accents refer to tone, stress on second syllable, romanisations are mine - there's no standard).

According to englishirishdictionary.com, the Irish Gaelic words for Grandma and Grandpa are Mamó (accent means a long vowel, in IPA - ma'mo: ) and Daideo (i and e are sort of silent, in IPA - 'dadjo).

My brother in law's dad is called "jaja" by his grandkids. Apparently it's Polish. It sounds adorable when the little ones say it.

My MIL informed me while pregnant that her grandchild would be permitted to address her as Grandmama or Her Majesty. We opted for Grandmama, of course there is a Grandpapa too. However, the relationship is anything but formal. It's more of a comedy act.

My parents were going to be Grandma Jane and Grandpa Tom, that's what their other grandchildren called them, but my daughter when first learning to speak called them Jane-Jane and Tom-Tom, thus they have been called since.

I only had one grandfather, so he was "Grandpa" and I had two grandmothers, but both were "Grandma"

They were rarely in the same room together, so there was never any confusion.

The rare times they were, we were taught to call them by their last name. So "Grandma B...." or "Grandma K...."

It worked just fine.

In swedish we distinguish between maternal and paternal grandparents... like this -

Paternal
Grandma - Farmor (literally 'father's mother')
Grandpa - Farfar (literally 'father's father')

Maternal
Grandma - Mormor (literally 'mother's mother')
Grandpa - Morfar (literally 'mother's father')

Most kids have problems with pronouncing the 'r', so often enough they are 'mommo' & 'moffa' (maternal) and 'fammo' & 'faffa' (paternal).
Except for my son who call my father 'mosta' which is kind of fun since it's close to the swedish word for maternal aunt, which is 'moster' (mother's sister).

BTW - congrats WHL :-)

Farmor? Mormor?

Aren't those lands in Middle-Earth?

:D

Hehe, who knows?
;-)

My two sets of grandparents were both Grandma and Grandpa, and usually my dad's parents got their first names attached, because his father passed away before I or my brother was born, and because we barely knew his mother. We never really knew them well enough to need a particular new name, and now just my mom's parents are left, so the distinctions aren't necessary. When my great-grandma was alive, she was known as Grandma Rose to distinguish her among all my cousins. I guess Italians don't really come up with creative names, since I've never heard any of my cousins call their grandparents anything else. I don't know my dad's side of the family well enough to know what they call their grandparents.

My boyfriend called his grandparents that he knew Nan and Granddad, so at least there will be a distinction between my parents and his mom if/when the time comes.

Being my grandparents were german we used the Opa and Oma for them when my children were born. My parents were grandma and Papa, their fathers parents were granny and grandpa.

My grandfather was called Pappaw.

With my husbands grandchildren, they call us Grandma or Grandpa first names. It was a lot easier for them to keep us straight since we all get along and have big family get togethers.

Congrats WHL! My daughter is the first grandchild for my mom and the second (after 12 yrs) for my inlaws. They are: my mom: Nana, MIL: Mam-aw (although my daughter pronounces it like Mom-maw) and my FIL: Pap-paw. My *other* mom (long story) is just Grandma and my grandmother is Granny.

My friend's little boy calls his paternal grandparents Nene and Pop-pop and his maternal grandmother is Meme.

Good luck! And five hours isn't too bad, our parents live 2 hours from us and come visit *very* regularly!

My mother's parents were "mother" and "pa" (the first grandchild couldn't pronounce "grand" and the mother/pa thing stuck for the rest of us. There is something comfortable and very southern about growing up with a "pa."

My other grandparents are grandmother and grandpa, very boring names.

my mother is "mimi" to my godson. He calls his own grandmother "yaya." He also had an "opa." it's a pretty ethnically mixed-up family :)

I'd rather be addressed, when I get old, by my grandkids as Grandpapa Jake or "That guy" or "Grandpop Book-write-man".

It's important that I decide what I want to be addressed by long before the arrival of grandchildren, so that I will not be unexpectedly annoyed by my children's children referring to me as "Grandpappy" *shudder*...

#29 - There is some miracle which happens by the time you are a grandparent, that you don't care what they call you, as long as they are holding their arms out and calling for you. Hard to imagine, but I've seen it happen again and again.

My friend's grandparents are simply Ma and Pa.

My grandparents on my father's side were "Neni" and "Nana".
On my mother's side I only have a grandmother and she is "Grosi". Her mother (my great-grandmother) was called "Gromel" which is a word my uncle invented when he was little, but it stuck for 40 years. My grandfather on this side would have been "Grosspapi", but he died before any of his grandchildren could talk (he died when I was barely one and I am the oldest) .
The German words Oma and Opa aren't used here, except if your grandparents are German.

My grandparents got the boring Grandma and Grandpa. I have friends who are Nana and Popi to their 6 grandkids. I kind of like that.

#17, #20 - You've both touched on what I would have offered up....which would be to simply decide on something YOU like to be called, then wait to see what your little munchkin decides to call you. :)

WHL: I recall my in-laws going through a similar quest when our son was born, and it all evaporated when he came up with Nana and Poppy. They now refer to themselves as that even when talking to us! It's just one of those things that make being around children interesting - whatever they come up with will probably be the one you like best.

Congrats!!

My husband's family is English but the first grandkids' dad is Greek so my mother in law is called Ya-ya, even by my half Chinese kids. My own parents are Po-po (my mom) and Gung-Gung (my dad) to my kids.

PS. Wanted to add: it's wonderful hearing all the variations here! Can't wait to find out what your grandchild ends up using WHL, but I guess we'll have a while to wait :o)

My brother has been having bone grafts and other surgeries to his wrist and arm, and usually has a brace or a cast. His grandsons call him "Grampa Owie"

In conversation ABOUT them, mine were Grandma and Grandpa Lastname, but in conversation WITH them, they were Grammy and Grampy, or Gramma and Grandpa - at least until we were teenagers.

I always called my dads parents grandma and grandpa and my mothers parents whom we saw seldom were Grandma and grandpa Jackie

I'm finding this thread really interesting! My Mum's parents were Nan & Pop, My Dad's mum died before I could speak so I'm not sure what she was called, but my Dad's Dad was Pa...

Don't you want to be known as G-Ma? G-Daddy? Ninny?

Congratulations, WHL! Best wishes to your family.

My father's parents were Nana and Pop; my mother's mother, a widow, was Grandma. When we had our kids, we adopted the practice used in my wife's family, so my parents are Grandma Maureen and Grandpa Jack, hers Grandma Peg and Grandpa Phil. This isn't terribly exciting, but it has the advantage of being consistent with Aunt Annie and Uncle Owen.

Whl, all the best for you and you family!

I call my grandparents Oma & Opa. My wife calles her grandparents "yeye" & "popo" for the fathers side and "nainai" for her mothers mother. (her mothers father has already passed on the chopstick)

Somehow, we called my maternal grandmother Marnie--and all the other grandkids followed suit--"Marnie" and "Papa".

Our kids called their paternal Polish grandmother "Baba".

One day I am going to be a Monie and hubby will be Po. (both with long O)
I think it is adorable.

>44 margd:

My husband's grandmother is called Marnie also!

> 46 fleela, how did your husband's grandmother come to be called Marnie, do you know? Our family story is that the first grandchild badly mispronounced "Grandma" and the rest followed suit. That grandmother, bless her, was so secretive about her age--she stashed her old age pension cheques under her mattress-- that she may well have planted the name just to avoid being called "Grandma"! She was of French, Irish, and English ancestry, but I don't think it's a name for grandmother in any of those traditions?

My grandmother lived in Canada (Kingston)--you live in Canada, too, I think you've said? Wonder if there was some local celebrity by the name of Marnie? (I've always liked the name!)

>47 margd:

I believe her nickname came from the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058329/

>48 DaynaRT: Oh, no! "Mark marries Marnie although she is a habitual thief and has serious psychological problems..." LOL!

I've also been interested in following this thread as I found myself unprepared when told three years ago that I was to become a grandmother and initially resisted the usual names. I had liked the idea of both Mardi and Marnie (they seemed a modern variation on grand-MA) but when the time came it just seemed natural that our granddaughter calls us the names we used for our own grandparents - Nana and Pop.

Some of us had our own children late, only to be referred to as the child's grandparent. Now THAT's a downer! (No matter how nice the comment.) We older parents used to laugh about the un-inked skin that we sported in the parent-toddler pool. (No tattoos.) At least, though, when I finally have grandchildren I'll be old enough to happily wear the title!

I call my grandmother who is still living Mimi. I know several women who are called that by their grandchildren. Maybe it's a Southern US thing? I don't know.

With my two sons, it gets more interesting. My father was Grandpa, and my FIL is Pap. They call my mother SueSue because she didn't want to be called Granny or Grandmother or anything like that. (Her name really is Sue.) And then there was my mother-in-law. Her first 2 grandchildren called her Mingaw. (I think it was a little child's version of Memaw.) When my older son came along, he came up with his own version, Gingaw, and this is what both my children called her until she died 3 years ago when my boys were 18 and 15. The name did get some odd looks, especially coming from my tall teenage son!

My husband called his grandmother Mildred because that was her name. An aunt of his told his grandmother that it was disgraceful that she allow him to call her that, but Mildred put the aunt in her place by saying, "He's my grandson, and he can call me whatever he wants to!" She was a great lady.

My brother and I called one set of grandparents by their first names and we called the other set Grandmama and Granddaddy. My boys call my parents by their first names. My grandparents and my dad died several years ago; my mother is still living and works at the library three days a week.

My family always went by Grandma and Grandpa, although my Dad's wife became Oma since my mom is grandma.

How about just creating something totally unique and not culturally linked?

Either make up nonsense words like Gogo and Frampky, or go with sitcom names like Wild Eagle and Crazy Cat, Lucy and Ricky, or even Lurch and Wednesday (Or Grandmamaw and Fester!!!)

Okay, bad idea...

#4 Not sure if it's celtic but my kids call their welsh grandmother "Nain". I think this is the right spelling but the pronunciation is pretty close to 9 the number. Can't help with the male equivalent as he is english and is Granddad.

My nan gets called nan by her grandchildren, nana marj by one set of great grand children, baby nan by another because she is just 5 ft tall, nana Holden as it's her surname and super nan by another family. I have often said my children will be calling her granny nanny but it most likely will change.

My uncle never wanted to be called grandpa or poppy because he aid it made him feel old so he is Pappy.

>54 mrgrooism: ""nonsense words like Gogo"

But Goqo, sometimes spelt Gogo, is a good African (Nguni / Sotho) word for a grandmother or an old woman. Now that Better Half and I are visibly "getting on a bit" we are often addressed as Gogo or Baba (grandpa) by Zulu-speaking shop assistants -- it's the polite thing to do in Zulu custom.

(edited for spelling)

My father's widowed mother, who lived very far from us and whom we did not see often, was always the very formal Grandmother Name.

My mother's parents, who we were much more close too, were (and are still) Nan and Pap or Nanny and Pappy. My parents, my extended family, and their great-grandchildren also call them that. My aunt and uncle, who have the grandchildren, are called Grandma Name and Grandpa Name.

My two great-grandmothers, who I remember only a little, I both called Greatgrand.

In Denmark we use the same as in Sweden, mormor and morfar, farmor and farfar. But we also have bedstemor og bedstefar, which translated would be bestmom and bestdad. My father's parents I called farmor and farfar and my mom's parent are / were mormor and bedstefar.

In Greenlandic anaa is grandmom and ataa is granddad.

I wanted to be Nana to my grands, (because that's what we called my mother's mother) but the first one firmly changed it to NeeNee as soon as she began talking.

Now what I really like is that they call my dad Grampa the Great. I think he likes it too.

I had Grandpa and Grandma on one side and Grandad on the other.

My kids have Gram and Grandpa Bob, Nonna and Grampa, and Grandad and Susan :)

Japanese:

Formal:
Obaasan - Grandmother
Ojiisan - Grandfather

Informal:
Baachan - Grandma
Jiichan - Grandpa

More informal (rather colloquial actually):
Oba - Grandma
Oji - Grandpa

We also have a Grammy and Boppy for grandma and grandpa, respectively - not sure where Boppy came from.

If we end up with kids, the names are already decided on my husband's side - they're Dutch, so it's Oma and Opa for them, with scads of cousins already, so there's no point in even trying to change it.

I did get to pick my own mother's "grandparent name" even though it was for my niece, not my own kid - mom was being indecisive, and my sister needed a name for the baby book, so I suggested my own favorite, "Nana" and mom liked that so much she decided on it at once. Success!

So we have Nana on the one side, and Oma and Opa on the other. My own grandmother is Memaw, and my grandfather was called "Pops" by all the adults, but us kids were terrified of him (we loved him, but he was ex-military and really didn't know what to do with kids, so he largely just watched us like we were peculiar aliens in his yard) and as far as I know, none of us ever called him anything but Grandfather to his face.

My friends have Gi-Gi and Pop-Pop for one set, which I think is adorable.

*hee* My dad is only 47 (had me straight out of high school), and he loves being "gramps" to my niece and nephews.  I have four sets of grandparents, myself, and since I was primarily raised around my paternal set, I don't have any nicknames for any of them.

I like the gaelic names. :)

I call my (remaining) grandmother Nanie (nah-nee) and my grandfather Papy (pah-pee).
My daughter calls my mum Mamine (mah-meen) and my dad Papy. If we need to distinguish between Papies, my dad is "Papy-papy" and my grandfather is "Papy from C", where C is the name of his home town. She calls her other set of grandparents Grandma and Grandpa. I think Grandpa wanted to be called Granddad, but it didn't happen.

My mom has no choice when my husband and I are expecting our first child. It will be 'Oma' (we're Dutch), because that is what she'll be. Her sister, my aunt, has made up a title, but to me, 'Oma' is a title with honor. My second-cousin, my aunt's grand kid, also made up a great solution on what to call my grandma (Oma :D), his great-grand-mother. She's not just a regular Oma, she is a Super-Oma!

My cousins have a similar arrangement: Oma and Goma (great-Oma).

>66 divinenanny: Does Dutch have a cognate of the mildly confusing Afrikaans term for a great-grandmother, ouma-grootjie? (Note for monoglot English-speakers: the literal syllable-by-syllable translation of this would be old-mother-big-little)

This reminds me of a half-forgotten story of a none-too-bright Afrikaans-speaking kid in primary school who produced a piece of "English" that started
"My old-father Big-little was a Front Puller in the Big Pull ..." . @divinenanny should be able to reconstruct the thought behind this, and work out that what the kid meant was "my great-grandfather was a Voortrekker in the Great Trek ..."

>68 hfglen: Uhm, yes and no. Officially grandmother is grootmoeder (literal translation). Great-grandmother is Over-grootmoeder (something like, next-grand mother). So when we use Oma (more informal), we use over-groot-oma for great grandmother. Super oma is much better.
I called my great grandmother "kleine oma" (little oma) because she was the shortest of them all. My husband had to laugh so hard when he found out, because my own two oma's are positively tiny ;).

ETA, my mother picked "Oma Bril" as her own grandmotherly title. It translates to Oma Glasses, because my mom wears glasses and has nearly 20 different pairs, always matching with her outfit.

To my grandchildren, I am simply Gramma Miller, while my SIL's parents are Gramma and Grampa Jensen. But my mother is GG (for Great Gramma), and Gramma Jensen's mother is Oma.

I do have one other name. My grandson was extremely amused when he found that my given name was Mary Lou. I spent several days listening to "Mary Looooooooooooooooo!" Still makes me laugh.

Congratulations WholeHouse! That's wonderful news. It is so much fun being a grandparent. I don't have any new names to add. I asked our daughter that I be called Grandma because I loved both my grandmothers dearly and hope I can try to be even half as good a grandparent as they were to me. Hence DH is Grandpa, the other two sets of grandparents are called Nana and Poppy, Granny and Gramps.

Interesting question/discussion. We have no kids yet, but my cousins' kids call my mom's sister "Bubby" and they called my grandmother "Great Bubby." I always thought that was a pretty awkward name/title and wouldn't have used it had we had kids before she died. And like someone above, I also had a "Little Bubby" who was my dad's bubby, and was only maybe 4'10" at most, so she got the "little" addition for us grandkids. :P

I'm not sure what I'd like my parents, or in-laws, to be called. With my grandparents all gone now, "Bubby" and "Zadie" are "free" for use without making things confusing, but I think I'd feel weird about them; in my mind those are reserved for my own grandparents. Maybe I'd go for Russian for my mom (my grandfather was from Russia (well Ukraine but back in Russian Federation days)). Actually both grandfathers were "Zadie" while only one grandmother was (to keep confusion from my dad's bubby, she was called "Nanny" (nah-nee)), so there's slightly less -this is one person's name- attached to it in my mind, so I might be okay using that for dad. Dunno what to do about step-mom, though! Hubs' parents would get the typical Dutch words, I guess.

>55 Barry:
Nain (pronounced 9) is Welsh for grandmother. Grandfather is taid (pronounced tide). Great grandparents are hen (literally old) nain and hen daid.

I called my grandmothers Nanna Lastname and my paternal grandfather was Pappy. I don't know where that came from (he was of German descent) but it always sounded hillbilly to me. My maternal grandfather died the day after my parents' wedding so I don't know what I would have called him. (Anything but Pappy I'm sure.) My brother married a German woman so their son used Oma and Opa until the divorce, at which point my brother said now it's Grandmother and Grandfather - quite a mouthful for a young child.

When my own children came along we used Nanna and Granddad for my parents. My in-laws had died many years prior so again they don't have a special name.

As an aside, I think it can be difficult to come up with appropriate names for in-laws too. My exe's grandfather was Pop-pop to everyone so I addressed him that too even though I grew up in a family that thought calling someone Pop was very disrespectful. (I didn't like him so I was OK with the double dose of disrespect he wanted.) I think some cultures/languages have special terms for one's child's in-laws. I think such names could be handy.

PS. So, WHL, who are you?

Sadly, WholeHouse seems to have left the building permanently. We miss him and his crotchety animal tales.

Clicking on his name brings up this: This member has been removed.

I thought that was only for spammers. Say it isn't so.

I was just thinking the other day that WholeHouse hadn't been here in a long time. Hope everything is ok; it seems I remember he was in poor health.

He left because of an altercation with another member of LT. He just sent me an email asking me to let you know he is okay.

"Could you please post there that I removed myself (so everyone understands I left of my own volition), and that I miss being on LibraryThing very much. I think about coming back every day..."

Please tell him we'll welcome him back!

>79 Esta1923:
I second that.

(I also would hope that LT members could maintain some degree of civility. I don't agree with everyone here about every topic but I try not to be disagreeable.)

oh, that is sad. If he would like to return, please tell him we would be delighted to have him back amongst us. And we can have disagreements in agreeable ways.