Comments on: Granny or Mom-Mom?

By: cricket

cricket — Sun, 30 Nov 2014 18:25:25 +0000

On my fathers side his mother was referred to as Mom mom and father was Pop pop. it wasn’t until I started school that I realized that this wasn’t common is all families. when I asked my parents, they said that my brother, being the oldest of all the grandchildren, started calling them this when he started talking and from that point on the rest of us referred to them as that. but, much to my amazement I was shipping for cards and I saw a greeting card addressed to both mom mom and pop pop. therefore I realized that this was not just something my brother came up with. On the other side of our family the grandparents were referred to as grandma and grandpa. now that I am a grandmother, I refer to myself as gamgams…I just thought it was cute. my mom was always referred to as grandma by my children, but now, to evade any misunderstandings we call her Nana. She loves it.

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:32:51 +0000

Just catching up on some blog reading and couldn’t let this go without comment because I LOVE what my kids call my parents…they are Ducky and Papu. My older son (who is now 5 1/2) is the 2nd grandchild, so my nephew had already been calling my mom “Grandy.” I assumed that’s why my son would call her too, but when he was about 2 he couldn’t quite pronounce it and it came out “Ducky.” At first we didn’t even realize that he was talking about her but eventually that became clear and the name has stuck and now my 3 year old also calls her that. I love it! Papu is because we all called my dad’s father (who passed away when I was Apu, which is Hungarian for “dad.” My dad didn’t really want to be called that so my husband suggested “Papu” as a combination of my dad’s name, Peter, and Apu. My dad absolutely hated that suggestion but apparently my nephew (who was under 2 at the time and the only grandchild) overheard the conversation and liked the name and it stuck! I think my dad has finally grown to like it…although my 3 year old now finds it hilariously funny to call him “poo-poo” instead of Papu.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:20:00 +0000

The woman who hated “Mommy” but embraces “Bammy” is just proving the point that grandchildren are perfectly precious, and whatever they do is fabulous.

By: goofdad

goofdad — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:01:28 +0000

I know I’m a week late here, but had to chime in as I hadn’t seen these in any of your answers. In CA (San Francisco Bay Area), my grandparents were Grammy and Grandpa on one side, Grandma and Grandpa on the other. Now, my kids call my parents “Bammy” and “Adad”, although my youngest recently decided, out of the blue, that Adad is gone, and he’s now Poppa (we’re all confused). My wife’s parents are Grandma and Grandpa (or sometimes Gramma and Grampa).

I think it’s funny that my mother hated “Mommy” when growing up, as it sounded “too cutesy”, and insisted on mama or mom…but gladly accepted “Bammy” when my daughter declared it.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:05:29 +0000

I didn’t realize until these comments came in that Mimi is a common East Coast/New England choice. Mimi, Gigi, Nana, Gaga, MomMom…there seems to be a theme here of repeating sounds. Poke and Doe are wonderful, I love these made-up unique names. And it IS funny that nobody has chimed in with Bubbie and Zadie, which used to be the common Jewish grandparents names. Perhaps they’re out of fashion.

By: tommyboy

tommyboy — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 03:22:07 +0000

I’m late on this comment, but Lady Gaga is the best! My kids had two Grandma Carols so one was Grammy, who refused the term Bubbie. My wife’s grandma was called GG. I never thought much about it and was embarrassed to learn a year later that it stood for great grandma. Heck, I thought the family had gone French on me.

By: Beth

Beth — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:29:25 +0000

I am 100% East Coast. I had a Grandma and Grandpa on one side (they were from Kentucky) and a Mimi and Granddad on the other side. My cousins called them Mimi and Poke. My Uncle likes to be called GG by his grandkids, but he thinks it stands for Great God. I would think this funny if it wasn’t overshadowed by his total lack of effort to actually get to know them. Not very God-like. Hmmmm…. You are making me think here Jennifer

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:41:41 +0000

Gaga and Lady Gaga is hilarious! How fun to have these characters in your family.
Nan seems like a very sophisticated variation on the theme of grandmother names, I personally like that one a lot. Nanna-in-Wales sounds like a storybook name.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:40:45 +0000

I always love to hear the names that grandparents don for themselves as they become grandparents. Or those that the grandchildren themselves come up with when they are first learning sounds and words and letters.

My mother is lovingly called GG by her nine grandchildren. I’m pretty sure she has written about it at our site before. And my sister and I have also written about it. It’s fun, it’s down-to-earth and it’s not all squishy grandmotherly, which she is not.

My mother-in-law is Gammy, basically because we couldn’t come up with anything else and it’s a cute name for an even cuter woman. Pure heart, through and through, she is.

I wonder what I will be called. But then again, I really can’t even think that far ahead. Nor should I.

By: Larousse

Larousse — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:03:12 +0000

My mum’s parents were Nan and Grandad, though I only ever knew Nan.
My dad’s parents were Daddo and Nanna-in-Wales.

My brother and sister-in-law have just had their first grandson and have decided they want to be “Grandad” and “Granny” respectively, I think it sounds too old for them (early 60s).

My mum was “Nanny” to her grandchildren and “Great-nanny” to her great-grandchildren. My sister now has great-grandchildren and is thinking of encouraging them to call her “Nanna” instead of “Great-Nan”.