So, what do you call your grandparents?
Published: 2/14/2013 2:14 PM
Last Modified: 2/14/2013 2:14 PM
I never thought much about what my grandkids call me.
Our first grandchildren, twin boys, began to call us Nonny and Papa almost as soon as they could talk, and it stuck. We loved it. Now all of the grandkids call us that. And it’s become a handy moniker for their friends and girl friends, and even some sons- and daughters-in-law who can’t quite get over the hurdle of calling us mom and dad, or by our first names.
My wife even loved it when one of the grandsons, not yet in school, dropped the “y” and began to call her “Non.”
So the grandparent name thing was never an issue in our family, and it never occurred to us to be concerned about what our grandkids called us, or what they called their other grandparents.
Apparently that’s not true in every family.
It turns out some families struggle with who gets to choose the grandparent name, what to do when the other grandparents choose the same or a similar name, how to handle children who don’t like the grandparent name, whether to correct grandchildren who misuse the name, and other issues.
One informal poll, with a small sample, found that 13 percent of people think the parents should choose the grandparent names, 34 percent said it should be the kids, 5 percent said it should be the grandparents, and 46 percent said it should be a combination of the above. We fell into the 34 percent.
Lists of grandparent names are even published to help people decide this all-important question. Who knew?
I notice my wife did not make one person’s list of either traditional grandmother names, or of modern grandmother names:
TRADITIONAL:
• Big Mom
• Gram
• Gramma
• Grammy
• Grams
• Grandma
• Grandmama
• Grandmom
• Grandmother
• Grannie
• Ma or Maw
• Mamo
• MawMaw
• Mema
• Memaw
• Mom-Mom
• Nana
• Nanny
MODERN:
• BeBe
• Bella
• GiGi
• G-Ma
• G-Mom
• Honey
• Lovey
• MayMay
• Mia
• Mim
I, however, did make the grandfather name list, with a little spelling variation:
TRADITIONAL
• Grandfather
• Grandpa
• Grampa
• Grandpappy
• Gramps
• Granddad
• Granddaddy
• Grandpop
• PawPaw
• Big Paw
• Peepaw
• Papadaddy
• Pop
• Poppa
• Pops
• Pop-Pop
• Poppy
• Big Daddy
• Boom-pa
• Bompa
• Bumpy
• Boppa
MODERN
• Chief
• Captain
• G
• G-Daddy
• G-Pa
• Duke
• Buddy
Written by
Bill Sherman
Staff Writer
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