My question for you today: How did you/do you address your grandparents? And how do your kids address their grandparents?
I was thinking of this because of a birthday note that June received over the weekend. Along with a birthday card, my mom likes to include a little info on one of the kids’ ancestors — just a paragraph or two with maybe a photo. Sometimes it’s a long-ago relative that lived in another country many generations ago. But this time it was someone a bit closer, someone I spent lots of time with as a child — my mother’s mother, Lucille Evans Pack, or in other words, June’s great-grandmother.
In the little note, my mom referred to her as GiGi, which is what her great-grandkids called her. I think that’s so cute — G.G., as in Great Grandmother! I’m not sure who thought to call her that. As grandkids, we called her Grandma Pack, so the name GiGi was only part of my life as an adult. Did she request it? Did one of the great-grandkids start it? Did one of my cousins or siblings suggest it? Or maybe it was thought up by one of her kids (my aunts and uncle and mother).
It has me wondering, what will my grandkids call me and Ben Blair? What will their kids call our parents? I want it to be something fun.
How about you? Do you stick with the classic, Grandma & Grandpa [last name]? Or do you use something more unusual? Maybe something you inherited from another country or another language? Gamma? Grammy? Poppa? Gramps? And what do you want your grandkids or great-grandkids to call you? I’d love to hear! If it helps, I just did a search for “alternative names for grandparents” and found this cute list. After reading it, I’m thinking our grandkids should call us Bubba and Ace. (I get to be Bubba.)
P.S. — The photo at top is Grandma Pack, age 82, on a boat headed to Santorini. She and my mom came to visit me and Ben when we lived in Greece. She even rode a donkey on the steep island paths!
Some good family friends became grandparents about four years ago and when the eldest grand daughter started talking, she called her grandmother “Mimi.” No one is sure where this came from. Like, at all. Not close to the woman’s name, not a nickname anyone they know is called or something from the other side of the family, or as far as they can tell in any books or other media this little girl would have been exposed to…. but “Mimi” is so adorable! It stuck!
I’m late to this thread but oh well: my paternal grandparents were Gebby (a mispronunciation by the oldest grandchild that stuck) and Grampy; my maternal grandparents were Grammy and Dirty Rat. Yep, you read right, that’s what my mom called her dad, a term of affection from an age-old joke, so that’s what we called him, too, and I never thought anything of it until he died, at which point Grammy decided the name was disrespectful so we were to call him Grandpa Pete posthumously, which seemed much stranger than calling him Dirty Rat in the first place! Now, my children call my parents Grandeur and Grandest, the names chosen by my English professor father, and I often wonder at what point they will have a realization of their own that their grandparents’ names are a bit off center!
You might not see this comment, but I adore my grandparents and great grandparents (and my memories of them) enough to share my thoughts anyway. My family always called my great grandma G.G.! I still talk about G.G. all the time to my kids because she lived to be 103! My mother’s parents (my grandparents) were Grammy and Grampy. My father’s parents were Grandma and Grandpa (last name). It’s an interesting question you bring up and I loved thinking about it…thanks!
i love my grand parents who help me in my life.
My mother wanted my children to call her Garnie, which I absolutely love. Garnie (short for guardian) is a character in the book Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild which is the book I read the most as a child.
We have a lot of grandparents for our children. They are: Grammy/Grandad; Gramma Marge/Grampa; Gramma Tina & Tom. The greats were: MomMom & PopPop; Great Grandmother/Great Grandfather. Sadly, the greats are all gone now.
In our family, the grandparent names do not change as more generations are born. Once a “bubbe” (Yiddish for grandmother), always a “bubbe.”
My grandfather was affectionately always called BB for ‘Billy Blackburn’… Ben Blair can use it too!!! :)
We call my (maternal) grandmother “Sweetie” because that’s what she called my older sister (the first grandchild) and my sister started calling her Sweetie right back and it just kind of stuck. My grandfather was Pop Pop (whom I will meet for the first time in heaven). Now at 94, Sweetie is more often referred to as G.G. which she graduated to when the first great-grandchild came along :-)
On my father’s side, my grandparents were Memere and Pepere (pronounced /MEH-may/ and /PEH-pay/). From what I understand they are French casual terms for grandparents (kind of like granny and granddad?). My grandfather’s parents were French-Canadian and while he grew up in Massachusetts, he spoke beautiful French.
My parents are now referred to as Memere and Pepere by all of the grandchildren, but as they are the last ones with the French last name (I have two sisters and we all took our husbands’ last names), I doubt any of us will be Memere and Pepere to our own grandbabes.
My poppa died when I was just 3. I have alway waited to have my grandchildren call me popa. Now my wifes family instead of becalled grand popa like it should be are upset that I want my granddaughter to call me popa. Am I wrong, this one really bothers me.
When our first daughter was born we asked the grand mothers what they liked. Both said Grammy–and the grand fathers were going to be Pop Pop & Petie Pop Pop. Emily( our first born) could not quite say GRAMMY–she got the ending “Me” so they both became “MIMI”. All the “grans” followed suit. Fast forward 30 years and Emily is expecting. I liked whatever–MAMMY ( loved it), GRANNY, maybe MARMEE–but Emily wanted to call me GG(she said it was for Gorgeous Grandma). GIGI has stuck & my husband is GRAMPY. All 5 grans call us GIGI & GRAMPY!
My more formal maternal grandparents were Grandma Betty and Grandpa Al, and my more relaxed paternal grandma and her husband were Granny and Grampa Mur (or Murray). My dad’s dad and wife were Grandpa (Last name) and Grandma Elva.
My son and my sister’s kids call my mom Gramma Cookie (her name is Sharon, but has been nicknamed Cookie since childhood.) My son mispronounced Grandpa in a hilarious way when he was little, so my dad is Grumpa Mike. 😁 He calls his other grandparents Grandma Lois and Grandpa Dennis, but he doesn’t know them well.
My stepkids only had one grandfather left when I met them as teenagers, and he was PaPa Billy. Their grandmothers sadly passed away really young.
I called my beloved grandmother “Bubie,” which is the yiddish work for grandmother. Two years ago, I became a grandmother and could not wait to be called “Bubie.” About 2 months ago, my granddaughter greeted me by running towards me on the sidewalk of NY yelling, “Bubie” over and over again. I was in heaven. She calls my husband, “Zaydee,” which is yiddish for grandfather.
I am Nana to my grandchildren (fairly common, and my grandmother was Nana to me) but my husband is called Guppy by the grandkids. Yes! Like the fish! It is of course, the first grandchild’s corruption of Grandpa. Guppy now answers to Guppy, Gups, Gup, the Gup and has a personalized drinking glass with “The Gup Cup” on it!
My girls call my mom Memaw, which my oldest started. They are the youngest of 13 grandchildren and the only ones who call her that. All other grandparents go by grandma and grandpa.
Grandson and Grand daughter called me grandma, until my grand daughter Sofia started to call me “grandmia”. She soon dropped the grand, and now my name is “Mia”
My husband and I were named by our twin grandsons when they started talking. For some reason, they started to call us Dagum (my husband Bob) and Deecy (me, Jacquie). Those names don’t seem to be related to do with our own names. We joked that those were the names for grandparents in their previous world. One grandson made my name sound Italian…adding an “ah” sound. So it sounded like Decia. Now that we have more grandsons, they all call us Dagum and Deecy. Though, now the older boys sometimes call us Dag and Deece for short. Waiting for them to choose their own names for us was such a joy!