What to Call Grandparents

bumpuser10199668

Some first time grandparents seem to be insistent upon being called something radically different by their new grandbabies.  What do your kids call your parents? Or share if you've got a crazy one that you use for your own grandparents.

How do you decide? Do the kids pick or do you tell them what to call?

bumpuser10199668

With a stepdad, I had the following grandparent names:

Mamaw/Grandad

Memaw/Greenpaw

Granny

My mom and stepdad are Nayna (NOT Nana!) and Grandpa to the grandkids they have, so I assume that will continue.

DH's parents are Memaw and Pepaw.

My dad wants to be Papaw.

The tradition in our family is that the first grandchild gets to pick.  You try to get Grandma/Grandpa out of them, and whatever they come up with is what sticks.

portentosa

All my parents and ILs like to be called grandma and grandpa except my stepdad. He wanted Papa, but H vetoed that immediately.

My dad's birth mom (he's adopted) I think was always uncomfortable with being a grandma when she reunited with my dad so my sister and I have always called her by her first name...since we were very little... at her insistence.

Eta: I like your family's tradition carm. Very cute. :-)

purplestarz

My mom is Nana to my niece and nephews, but I told her not with my kids. It reminds me of the dog in Peter Pan.

However, this kid is going to have 4 sets of grandparents so we might need some unique names.

brittneyandadam

My mom's parents are Nanny and Poppy and my dad's mom is Mimi.

I was kind of weirded out when my dad asked to be called "Geegee". His wife's niece has a son that calls him that. I thought I would be nice to have his actual grandchild pick the name...not some kid from a family he married into. But whatever, I obviously have issues lol.

I was going to ask that my mom be called Nanny, like her mom and her grandmother...just to kind of keep the tradition going. But she says it makes her feel too old. And DH just called both of his grandparents grandma and grandpa...so not sure if my IL'S will want nicknames.

Ideally, I'd want my kid to come up with the name.

salsa_wifey

We were set on Grandma and Grandpa - it was just a question of if we called them Grandma [First Name] or Grandma [Last Name].  We asked the grandparents and let them decide.

One Grandma is Disney Grandma because she takes us to Disney World. She came up with that on her own.

Another Grandma is Cookie Grandma because she bakes cookies (obviously). DS #1 came up with that one by himself.

JustCricket

My mom refuses to be called grandma/grammie/nanna aka anything she thinks is too old... so we'll see. She's pushing possibly for Mimi or Mema. Dad doesn't care but thinks Opa would be cool. H's parents are normal and okay with grandma/pa.

TinkL0ver

My oldest nephew started calling my mom Grammy and it has stuck with every kid since then so I'm sure that is what mine will call her too. (she hated it at first but it grew on her) All the male grandfathers have been called "papa first name" Seems simple enough to remember. Although if LO decides something different than I'm sure theres no stopping them lol.

sapphires-and-diamonds

We always called ours Grandma (last name) and Grandpa (last name). My great-grandma on my dad's side was Oma (German) and great grandma/pa on my mom's side were Bestemor and Bestefar (Norwegian). 

SIL's kids call ILs Nana and Grandpa B, so I assume ours will too. That was ILs preference. My parents will probably be Grandma and Grandpa (although my brother's kids hard a hard time with saying grandma/pa so for a long time in was "Numa" and Dumpa")

mrsH1112

brittneyandadam said:

My mom's parents are Nanny and Poppy and my dad's mom is Mimi. I was kind of weirded out when my dad asked to be called "Geegee". His wife's niece has a son that calls him that. I thought I would be nice to have his actual grandchild pick the name...not some kid from a family he married into. But whatever, I obviously have issues lol. I was going to ask that my mom be called Nanny, like her mom and her grandmother...just to kind of keep the tradition going. But she says it makes her feel too old. And DH just called both of his grandparents grandma and grandpa...so not sure if my IL'S will want nicknames. Ideally, I'd want my kid to come up with the name.

I actually laughed at this because my grandma actually used to call private parts your "geegee"

kirstynikole

Oh man baby will have way too many grandparents and great grandparents but that comes with a big family!
We'll have nanny and papa, grandpapa, grandma, grandpa, Grammy and then.... Wait for it.... My mom wants some bizarre shit like yaya. She says it's what Greeks call grandma and granted my great great grandpa was from Greece but wth?! That makes my mom barely Greek! It's not even like we called my great grandma (who was actually half Greek) yaya or something like that- she was nanny! I laughed when my mom said that and i go... Well we've still got awhile. I refuse! I refuse! You will be plain ok grandma if you don't come up with something better than yaya! What will my stepdad be, YoYo? Yaya and YoYo? I can't stand it.

Ok end rant.

*edit clarity*

mrsH1112

My family is traditionally Grandma and Papa. Thats what they will be with my LO

His family will be Grandma and Grandpa.  My husband has issues because his father (who he had a bad relationship with) has passed, and his mom has been married to her 2nd husband (who Jack doesnt get along with) for 20 years.  Jack (DH) hates the fact that our baby will have him as a grandfather, and wants the baby to just call stepfather by his first name rather than Grandpa

Ecat504

My mom and step father are INSISTING to be mawmaw and pawpaw. My grandmother is going to be granny and my grandfather will be grandpa. As for what my real dad will be called, I'm at a loss. We have never had cutesy names for grandparents or great grandparents, and everyone has dibbed the cliche names. I'm open to suggestions, he is "too young to be a pawpaw" though so...

MrsLaLaBug

My parents are Jammy and Pops. IL's are Mimi & Papere. Both sets of names were already decided by previous grandbabies/other siblings.

Soogerplum

My mom is MiMi and my dad is just Grandpa. My crazy stepmom insisted on being called 'G'ma' because she feels that in her mid 40's she's too young to be called Grandma.

PerpetualHJ

I love Jammy.  I think it's cute.

We will have Nana and Popaw on my side (decided 24 years ago by my niece)

Our baby will be the first on my husband's side.  Grandma wants to be Grandma, Grandad hasn't decided or doesn't have a preference yet.  We have asked but haven't gotten an answer.  He says as long as the precious little one calls him, that's all he cares. 

:x

emmylu30

DS is the first grandchild on my mom's side and she chose Mamaw and Papaw for DS to call them but Papaw comes out more like Pa-Pop and Mamaw sounds awfully close to Mama right now for my 19 mo old so I think he is confused and she's going to think of another name for him to call her. Then we have Oma and Opa for my husband's mom and step dad and Grandpa and Grandpa for husband's dad and step mom.  

bf43005

It was always Grandma and Grandpa when I was growing up.  The only slight change to that was sometimes my one Grandma was referred to as GGW (Granny Good Witch) but we never called her that, just cards and stuff signed that way.

nstark2908

Both sets of my parents are Grandma/Grandpa. In Law's are CeeCee and Poppy.

Bella2425

We left it up to our son. We always referred to them as "grandma and grandpa" but he calls my dad "pa-pa". Only my dad though, all the other grandpa's are "grandpa".  He was the first grand-baby though, so he kind of got to lead the way.

wrightpalomo

My sister's kids were the first on my side and they call my parents Little M'am and Pop or Poppy. Sadly, my BIL's mom gets called Big M'am (based on height, my mom is 5'1'' and Big M'am is 6'1'').

I don't know what my kids will do but I really like Little M'am and Pop for my parents. My MIL is the same height as my mom so the Little M'am thing might not fly. I'm kind of hoping they will call MIL "Abuelita" but we'll have to see what they come up with. She is already Tia Lefty to my sister's kids (she's left handed like my sister's youngest) I don't like the idea of Grandma Lefty but we'll see how it evolves. 

mle5d

ILs are Nana and Pop

My parents are Sunny (my mom's choice) and Big Dad (he wanted to be Grandad, but my DS insisted on Big Dad and it stuck)

Beedeck

My mom is Nana, my dad and step mom are Grandpa and Grandma. ILs are Bammy and Papa. Bammy was supposed to be Grammy, but my niece couldn't say it and it came out Bammy, 11 years later she is still Bammy.

I like that each grandparent has their own distinguishing name, I tend to not like when the kids have to differentiate between them all by using their first names or last names.

Stasi

The ILs preferred to be called what the rest of their grandkids had been calling them for years - Grandma FN and Grandpa FN, Kate calls them gan-paw and gan-na...it's freakin' adorable.

Kate is the first grandchild on my side, so my mom and dad sort of developed names for themselves. My mom was easy, her name is Annie and she wanted to be called Granny because it rhymed.

One day, I sent a text to my dad and called him "G-pa" in the text and it pretty much stuck, although it's turned into "papa" because Kate doesn't say Gs very well yet.

Irisheyes1247

DH's parents are grandma (first name) and grandpa (first name). My parents are grandpa (first name) and Boo, which is a riff on the polish word for grandma.

mariaculbreth

My mom is Gigi my dad is Bumpa
My FIL is Grampy and if my MIL was alive she was (is) Grammy Rose

SmarieMcB84

Mm Mom is Mimi to all of her grand kids. My Dad is Puff Pop (sort of a joke about his hair).

My MIL wanted very badly to be called Nona, however my DH said it was too forced and he didn't like it... (they have a great relationship -- pysch) So she's grammy/brammy/mammy. My FIL is Poppy. 

ETA: My DH's Grandmom and Pop Pop are Mumsy and Pop Pop the Great! haha

chardonnay24

We always called both sets of parents just "Grandma" and "Grandpa". This has started to confuse my kid lately, so now we have to clarify by saying, "We're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house with Sam dog and Lance kitty!" or something so he knows who we are talking about. We see my parents 2-3 times a week and we see my ILs less than once every few months (we don't get along) so we'd like to start calling my ILs "Grandma and Grandpa First Names" but they said it's disrespectful, so I guess we are going to keep calling them all the same name and identifying them by their animals for now.

deviousmuse

Like PP above, since my mom is Dutch, she wants Oma, as that's what she called her grandmother. That same logic, my dad called his grandfather Papa, so that's what he has chosen.

Laceyrm06

My mom's parents were always Grandma and Paw. My dad's parents were Grandma (last name) and Grandpa (last name).

All of our parents made sure to tell us what they would be called on the day we announced our pregnancy. I'm all for letting the kids decide what to call their grandparent's (that's what my husband and I were able to do...).

MIL = Momo (no clue how to spell it, but it's pronounced "Mom-oh" - which is what she called her grandmother)
FIL = Grandpa
My mom = Nana ("Nah-na")
My dad = Poppy
My step-mom = Granny

cmumama

I call my grandparents grandma and grandpa.

My kids call my mom nana and my dad papa.  They call my grandma mimi.  They call my inlaws grandma and grandpa.

LTMama

My parents are Sitty (grandma) and Jiddo (grandpa), both in Arabic.  For a while, DD couldn't pronounce them properly and said Titty (lol) and Diddo.  She calls my grandma Teita, which is another grandma name in Arabic.

DH's parents had a hard time coming up with names, they initially wanted to be called whatever my parents were being called, so we had to explain to them a few times that it was less confusing for DD if they had different names.  We couldn't really do Sitty ___ or Jiddo ___ because they have really complicated names (DD has been a bit slow getting going with talking and pronunciation, so I wanted to keep it simple for her)..  DH and his sis used to call his mom's parents by nicknames (Mimi and Dadoush), so I encouraged the ILs to think of nicknames.  Eventually now DD calls her grandma Goosha (baby abbreviation of her very long Polish name), and her grandpa Ben (abbreviation of his very long Arabic name lol).  It's cute.

KayNatural

We always called my grandma Ma.  But my mom wants to be called Nana, so that's how we'll refer to her when the baby is born.  My MIL and FIL already have grandkids, who call them Grandma and Grandpa, so I assume our LO will follow suit...

debikae

My parents will be grandma and grandpa. 

My in-laws have only one current grand-child (who is 17) who calls them Barka and BopBop.  We will not encourage those names since the ages of grandkids are so different.  IL's will be good with whatever.

Expecting090114

Growing up my brother and I called both sets grandma and grandpa. To differentiate, my dads parents were grandma & grandpa o (last name initial). We will probably continue that with my parents and in laws, with the except of mil..she's already Mimi to other grandkids. Thankfully my father-in-law doesn't go by what the other grandkids called him(no longer speaking to their parents) Big Daddy.. so glad that is gone!

mrsdanielleM2010

My Mom's parents were my Nanny and Grandfather

My Dad's parents were YiaYia and Grandpa

My Mom will be Nanny. 

My Dad and his wife will be Grandpa and either Bunica (she's Romanian, and that's her word for Grandmother) or Miss Silvia, depends on if I can stomach the idea of my child having connections to her. 

DH's parents will be MeeMaw and PeePaw

We are lucky that DH's grandparents are still around. They will be Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. 

mcstrepp

My mom wanted to be galled grammers but my nephew couldn't say it so he calls her Ama and it has stuck. I'm assuming my LO will call her the same.

Risplus1

Both sets of my grandparents were Grandma and Grandpa [lastname]. DH's grandparents were Mawmaw and Pawpaw. 

My niece calls my parents Grandma and Grandpa, and my mom's mom is Gigi, so our LO will probably use those names, too. DH's mom and stepdad don't really have a preference, so they'll probably be grandma/grandpa [firstname].

whataboutscience

Ours will have one grandpa, one opa, and 3 who I'm pretty sure would all like grandma. If we add first names, they will actually have a grandma and great grandma with the same first name. Confusing, right? We'd have the same problem with last names too though. We are young (26) and there are still 6 great grandparents alive.

Ceridwen21

We let our parents choose what they wanted to be called, though I'm sure I would have stepped in if it was something really weird like "mama" (which happened to one of my friends).

My parents are Nana and Grandad.  My ILs are Grandma and Grandpa.  Initially both moms wanted Nana, but I told them I preferred that they each have a different name (Nana X and Nana Y just seemed a bit too formal for our small family).  My mom won out cause she's a brat.  

sprocketsngadgets

I'm not sure about DH's parents

My parents will be Grandma and Grandpa since that's what my brothers kids call them. For a while when their first was still new to the talking thing my dad was Dada Bob. We all thought it was hilarious, but it didn't stick.