I don't know how those generational nicknames came to be in our family, but they have been fairly consistent. And likely to remain that way in the future, as this topic came up in discussions with my daughters recently.
My dad's parents were called "Grandma" and "Pop-pop" by myself, my sister, and all of our cousins. Likewise, my mom's parents were known as "Nana" and "Grandpa" for my generational group.
Once I had children of my own, my mother took on the "Nana" role, as if it was handed down to her by her late mother. Ditto for my dad, who is now "Pop-pop" (like his father before him) for my daughters and my sister's children.
And the discussion with my daughters about what my wife and I will be called once we are grandparents seemed to confirm that a title will be "passed down" to us, as nickname nomenclature. I shall be "Pop-pop", like my father (and paternal grandfather) before me; and my wife will become "Grandma", just as her mom did for my children.
My maternal grandparents died long before I was born. My paternal grandparents were Grandma and Pop-Pop. To our children, my parents were (by their choice) Grandmother and Granddad, thus breaking the Pop-Pop tradition (my mom chose Grandmother, I think, in part to distinguish herself from Dad’s mother and in part because she simply disliked the name Grandma). My wife’s mom was Nana and we’d refer to her dad, who died of cancer shortly after our wedding, as Grampa Paul.
Both our children have chosen not to have kids, but our youngest has a dog, Amelia, and because he’s Daddy we’re now Granddad and Nana to her. 😉
My wife’s parents emigrated from the Netherlands in the 1950s but all their children were US-born. Both sets of grandparents were Oma and Opa, the Dutch names for grandmother and grandfather respectively.
I never knew either sets of grandparents. My parents were called Bumpa (grandfather) and Geema (grandmother- the G has the same sound in both) by my sister’s kids.
When I was in the military I’d go with a friend to his grandmother’s house. His grandma was one of the coolest, funniest people I know. She was like a grandmother to all of us. Sometimes 4 of us would go and we all were required to call her Meemaw.
Thanks to being adopted and having found my biological family 8 years ago, I have even more grandparents to refer to. ;)
My (adoptive) maternal grandfather died 7 years before I was even born, so I never called him anything (except "the late"...). My paternal grandfather was "Granddad" to me. My maternal and paternal grandmothers were both "Grandma" with there last names used to differentiate them.
My (biological) paternal grandparents were both long gone before I discovered my biological family, so no real references there. Luckily, both of my maternal grandparents were still alive. My grandfather was "Grandpa" because that's what my biological siblings called him (he passed away in 2022). And my grandmother (who's still alive) is my third "Grandma", again using her last name to differentiate.
My wife's mother used "Grandy" as she was a grandmother at 41 and decided that was far too young to be a "Grandma". Her father used "Grandadden" as his father had used "Dadden". Interesting timing for this post as my wife and I have established our desired "grand" names if we ever actually get grandchildren: "Pops" for me and "Nana" for my wife.
"If your grandparents were alive when you were growing up, what did you call them? Do you know how those names were chosen?
I never knew either grandfather, they died in the 1920s. My mother's mother helped raise me and she was known as Nana, her real name was Bridget. My father's mother visited about once a year from Newfoundland and frankly I do not recall what I called her. Her name was Catherine.
We had Granny & Gramps on my mom’s side, and Nana on my dad’s. Great-grandparents, who were only available on my mom’s side, were just “Grandma Robillard” and “Grandma / Grandpa Thibodeau.” No idea as to the provenance; I think I inquired as a child and no one seemed to know then, either.
My father's parents were plain old Grandma and Grandpa, but my mother's parents, who were more observant and often spoke Yiddish at home, were Bubbe and Zayde. By the time I had my own kids, both my parents had passed, and the only older relative left on my side of the family was my single, childless, uncle Arnold. He asked if he could be an honorary "Zayde", I obliged him, so my kids grew up calling him that, but it always felt a little off to me since he hadn't earned the title. That said, he at least shared stories of growing up with my mom in Atlantic City in the 30's with them, and had, as they say, "A Yiddishe kopf" and a Borscht Belt sense of humor.
My kids refer to my wife’s mom as “grandma with stairs” and my mom as “grandma with no stairs” as my mother in law lives in a 2 story house and my mom lives in a single story ranch. They always wanted to know which one we were going to visit, so it became descriptive.
All my grandparents and step grandparents were just “grandma” or “grandpa.”
My wife referred to her grandparents as “Oma” and “Opa” after taking German in high school.
My paternal grandparents were just Grandma and Grandpa. I don’t know how that happened. It was established by the time I was born. My maternal grandparents were Mimi and Papa (pronounced pah-pah, both syllables dressed equally). I don’t know how that happened, either, but I’m the oldest grandchild on that side, so there’s a pretty good chance I’m the one who came up with it.
I only got to meet two of my great-grandparents. My mom’s maternal grandmother was Gogi. I’ve heard my mom’s older brother, my uncle Steve, came up with that. My dad’s paternal grandmother was Oma, because she grew up in the Netherlands and was a native Dutch speaker.
I knew before I had kids that I wanted one set of grandparents to be Grandma and Grandpa and one set to have more unique names. It worked out pretty cleanly with my wife’s parents. Her mom has a preexisting nickname that lends itself well to a grandmother name, and her dad specifically asked to be called Dziadzia, because his family is Polish. So my mom and dad got to be Grandma and Grandpa, and that was that.
As a grandfather, I love this. First, I didn't know my maternal grandparents. My mothers father was absent much of her life, moving between Italy and the States (and between his two families apparently), and died before I was born when a tractor he was driving fell on him on the side of a hill. In fact the only photo of him I've ever seen comes from the local Pennsylvania newspaper and shows only his legs sticking out from under the tractor(!). My maternal grandmother died when I was very young, I only know her from a few pictures.
But I was very close to my paternal grandparents who lived in Brooklyn. They led pretty amazing lives as my grandfather stowed away on a ship from the Azores and landed in Florida at the age of 15. He soon found himself in the US Army fighting in WWI after fibbing about his age. As part of the US occupying forces he met my German grandmother on her family's farm and that was that. We lived with them when I was a preschooler. We called them Pop Pop and Nanny.
We see our grandaughter here in Houston all the time. She calls my wife and I Papa and YaYa. My grandkids in Evanston are mostly Facetimers and to them we are Grandpa and Grandma.
btwn grandpa tractor-legs & the wizard of oz, we’re you surprised by the low mortality rate of “getting smashed whole”, maybe at some point in your teens…?
LOL If I had been aware on the tractor incident back then I'd probably been very tramatized! My mother never mentioned it until I was nearly an adult as I recall. He was a pretty lousy human. My grandmother raised four girls by taking in laundry and doing sewing for neighbors. My mother told me she never learned any English.
On my Mother's side, we had Grandma & Grandpa. On my Father's side, it was Nanny & Pop Pop. My brothers both have kids, and my parents go by Grandma & Pop Pop—a mix of the two.
I grew up with two Mom-Moms and two Pop-Pops. Because we saw my mom's parents way more often, they were simply "Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop." We added my dad's parents names as a qualifier, so we would always call them Mom-Mom Lola and Pop-Pop Albie (those were some names!).
Our daughter has six grandparents (and had three great-grandmothers still alive that she knew for a few years before they passed), so my wife and I let all of our parents and step-parents pick the names. We have lots of names, but no overlaps!
My mom and stepdad: Grandmom and Granddad (great-grandmother: Mom-Mom)
My dad and stepmom: Pop and Gram Heidi (great-grandmothers: Gram Janice and Oma)
My in-laws: Bubbi and Pop-Pop
I also do the nickname switching when referring to my parents. I'll talk about my mom to our daughter, referring to her as Grandmom.
As a kid I would confuse my grandmother's names, Grandma Margie and Grandma Mary, so we started calling Grandma Mary, Bingo Grandma because she always liked to play bingo. It stuck until teenage years and then she became Grandma Mary.
When he was young, my nephew would call my grandma, his great grandma, Super Grandma, as he could not wrap his head around having a grandma and a great grandma.
Paul, my grandparents on my mom’s side were Bald Poppy and Grandmom and on my dad’s side were Pop and Grandma. There were a ton of grandkids and I wonder how these names stuck. My parents were Pop and Grandma and when I became a grandfather I knew I was much too young to be anything other than Pop-Pop (couldn’t see me as grand anything). My grandkids (and everyone else now call my mom GiGi or (GG) for great grandmother and she loves it
I don't know how those generational nicknames came to be in our family, but they have been fairly consistent. And likely to remain that way in the future, as this topic came up in discussions with my daughters recently.
My dad's parents were called "Grandma" and "Pop-pop" by myself, my sister, and all of our cousins. Likewise, my mom's parents were known as "Nana" and "Grandpa" for my generational group.
Once I had children of my own, my mother took on the "Nana" role, as if it was handed down to her by her late mother. Ditto for my dad, who is now "Pop-pop" (like his father before him) for my daughters and my sister's children.
And the discussion with my daughters about what my wife and I will be called once we are grandparents seemed to confirm that a title will be "passed down" to us, as nickname nomenclature. I shall be "Pop-pop", like my father (and paternal grandfather) before me; and my wife will become "Grandma", just as her mom did for my children.
My maternal grandparents died long before I was born. My paternal grandparents were Grandma and Pop-Pop. To our children, my parents were (by their choice) Grandmother and Granddad, thus breaking the Pop-Pop tradition (my mom chose Grandmother, I think, in part to distinguish herself from Dad’s mother and in part because she simply disliked the name Grandma). My wife’s mom was Nana and we’d refer to her dad, who died of cancer shortly after our wedding, as Grampa Paul.
Both our children have chosen not to have kids, but our youngest has a dog, Amelia, and because he’s Daddy we’re now Granddad and Nana to her. 😉
My wife’s parents emigrated from the Netherlands in the 1950s but all their children were US-born. Both sets of grandparents were Oma and Opa, the Dutch names for grandmother and grandfather respectively.
I never knew either sets of grandparents. My parents were called Bumpa (grandfather) and Geema (grandmother- the G has the same sound in both) by my sister’s kids.
When I was in the military I’d go with a friend to his grandmother’s house. His grandma was one of the coolest, funniest people I know. She was like a grandmother to all of us. Sometimes 4 of us would go and we all were required to call her Meemaw.
Thanks to being adopted and having found my biological family 8 years ago, I have even more grandparents to refer to. ;)
My (adoptive) maternal grandfather died 7 years before I was even born, so I never called him anything (except "the late"...). My paternal grandfather was "Granddad" to me. My maternal and paternal grandmothers were both "Grandma" with there last names used to differentiate them.
My (biological) paternal grandparents were both long gone before I discovered my biological family, so no real references there. Luckily, both of my maternal grandparents were still alive. My grandfather was "Grandpa" because that's what my biological siblings called him (he passed away in 2022). And my grandmother (who's still alive) is my third "Grandma", again using her last name to differentiate.
My wife's mother used "Grandy" as she was a grandmother at 41 and decided that was far too young to be a "Grandma". Her father used "Grandadden" as his father had used "Dadden". Interesting timing for this post as my wife and I have established our desired "grand" names if we ever actually get grandchildren: "Pops" for me and "Nana" for my wife.
"If your grandparents were alive when you were growing up, what did you call them? Do you know how those names were chosen?
I never knew either grandfather, they died in the 1920s. My mother's mother helped raise me and she was known as Nana, her real name was Bridget. My father's mother visited about once a year from Newfoundland and frankly I do not recall what I called her. Her name was Catherine.
We had Granny & Gramps on my mom’s side, and Nana on my dad’s. Great-grandparents, who were only available on my mom’s side, were just “Grandma Robillard” and “Grandma / Grandpa Thibodeau.” No idea as to the provenance; I think I inquired as a child and no one seemed to know then, either.
My father's parents were plain old Grandma and Grandpa, but my mother's parents, who were more observant and often spoke Yiddish at home, were Bubbe and Zayde. By the time I had my own kids, both my parents had passed, and the only older relative left on my side of the family was my single, childless, uncle Arnold. He asked if he could be an honorary "Zayde", I obliged him, so my kids grew up calling him that, but it always felt a little off to me since he hadn't earned the title. That said, he at least shared stories of growing up with my mom in Atlantic City in the 30's with them, and had, as they say, "A Yiddishe kopf" and a Borscht Belt sense of humor.
My kids refer to my wife’s mom as “grandma with stairs” and my mom as “grandma with no stairs” as my mother in law lives in a 2 story house and my mom lives in a single story ranch. They always wanted to know which one we were going to visit, so it became descriptive.
All my grandparents and step grandparents were just “grandma” or “grandpa.”
My wife referred to her grandparents as “Oma” and “Opa” after taking German in high school.
My paternal grandparents were just Grandma and Grandpa. I don’t know how that happened. It was established by the time I was born. My maternal grandparents were Mimi and Papa (pronounced pah-pah, both syllables dressed equally). I don’t know how that happened, either, but I’m the oldest grandchild on that side, so there’s a pretty good chance I’m the one who came up with it.
I only got to meet two of my great-grandparents. My mom’s maternal grandmother was Gogi. I’ve heard my mom’s older brother, my uncle Steve, came up with that. My dad’s paternal grandmother was Oma, because she grew up in the Netherlands and was a native Dutch speaker.
I knew before I had kids that I wanted one set of grandparents to be Grandma and Grandpa and one set to have more unique names. It worked out pretty cleanly with my wife’s parents. Her mom has a preexisting nickname that lends itself well to a grandmother name, and her dad specifically asked to be called Dziadzia, because his family is Polish. So my mom and dad got to be Grandma and Grandpa, and that was that.
As a grandfather, I love this. First, I didn't know my maternal grandparents. My mothers father was absent much of her life, moving between Italy and the States (and between his two families apparently), and died before I was born when a tractor he was driving fell on him on the side of a hill. In fact the only photo of him I've ever seen comes from the local Pennsylvania newspaper and shows only his legs sticking out from under the tractor(!). My maternal grandmother died when I was very young, I only know her from a few pictures.
But I was very close to my paternal grandparents who lived in Brooklyn. They led pretty amazing lives as my grandfather stowed away on a ship from the Azores and landed in Florida at the age of 15. He soon found himself in the US Army fighting in WWI after fibbing about his age. As part of the US occupying forces he met my German grandmother on her family's farm and that was that. We lived with them when I was a preschooler. We called them Pop Pop and Nanny.
We see our grandaughter here in Houston all the time. She calls my wife and I Papa and YaYa. My grandkids in Evanston are mostly Facetimers and to them we are Grandpa and Grandma.
btwn grandpa tractor-legs & the wizard of oz, we’re you surprised by the low mortality rate of “getting smashed whole”, maybe at some point in your teens…?
LOL If I had been aware on the tractor incident back then I'd probably been very tramatized! My mother never mentioned it until I was nearly an adult as I recall. He was a pretty lousy human. My grandmother raised four girls by taking in laundry and doing sewing for neighbors. My mother told me she never learned any English.
On my Mother's side, we had Grandma & Grandpa. On my Father's side, it was Nanny & Pop Pop. My brothers both have kids, and my parents go by Grandma & Pop Pop—a mix of the two.
My four grandparents were Dutch, so automatically “Oma” and “Opa”. My parents became Oma and Opa. Now my wife (not Dutch) is Oma and I’m Opa.
I grew up with two Mom-Moms and two Pop-Pops. Because we saw my mom's parents way more often, they were simply "Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop." We added my dad's parents names as a qualifier, so we would always call them Mom-Mom Lola and Pop-Pop Albie (those were some names!).
Our daughter has six grandparents (and had three great-grandmothers still alive that she knew for a few years before they passed), so my wife and I let all of our parents and step-parents pick the names. We have lots of names, but no overlaps!
My mom and stepdad: Grandmom and Granddad (great-grandmother: Mom-Mom)
My dad and stepmom: Pop and Gram Heidi (great-grandmothers: Gram Janice and Oma)
My in-laws: Bubbi and Pop-Pop
I also do the nickname switching when referring to my parents. I'll talk about my mom to our daughter, referring to her as Grandmom.
I only knew my mom's parents, so it was just Grandma and Grandpa. I remember being surprised as a kid finding out that others had four, not two.
As a kid I would confuse my grandmother's names, Grandma Margie and Grandma Mary, so we started calling Grandma Mary, Bingo Grandma because she always liked to play bingo. It stuck until teenage years and then she became Grandma Mary.
When he was young, my nephew would call my grandma, his great grandma, Super Grandma, as he could not wrap his head around having a grandma and a great grandma.
Paul, my grandparents on my mom’s side were Bald Poppy and Grandmom and on my dad’s side were Pop and Grandma. There were a ton of grandkids and I wonder how these names stuck. My parents were Pop and Grandma and when I became a grandfather I knew I was much too young to be anything other than Pop-Pop (couldn’t see me as grand anything). My grandkids (and everyone else now call my mom GiGi or (GG) for great grandmother and she loves it
Even her grandkids and kids call her that now.