I’m wondering if other name enthusiasts wanted to sway gparent names a little, like me. Growing up, I called mine Grandma/pa lastname. Weirdly formal! I wanted each set of gparents to have distinct names. [name]MIL[/name] was easy – she’s Italian, so “[name]Nonna[/name].” My mom had a preference for Grammy but it ended up [name]Mimi[/name], which we all love. One grandfather was already established with older cousins as Papa D. (Apparently it’s a southern tradition to call your grandfather “papa.”) My dad also ended up as Papa. So I didn’t quite get my way, but I’m very happy with where we ended up (as are all the gparents).
Anyway, just wondering if gparent names came naturally in your family, or if you tried to “guide” them? What did you end up with?
Well, Growing up, I had one set of Polish Grandparents, hence Babci & Gagi. The other set were WASPY, so Gramma & Grampa they were. My folks are gone now, but the boys called them Grammy & Grampy when they were little. His dad’s gone, and was a jerk to be nice about it) so his Mom goes by HoneySue, so to our kids she’s [name]Nana[/name] [name]Honey[/name]. She’s a bit unorthodox. I refuse to let a child call an adult by name. At least 'til they’re an adult too!
They came very naturally in our family! I’m the baby, so my grandmother was already firmly established as Bigmama when I came along. I’ve asked where it came from (she’s tiny), but no one remembers. When my niece got to be talking age, she was used to seeing my dad (her grandfather) and his mother (Bigmama) together, and started calling him Big Daddy all on her own. At first I was startled, and now I think it’s charming and hilarious in an [name]OTT[/name] [name]Tennessee[/name] [name]Williams[/name] kind of way.
