My sister and I have been thinking about what our children will call our parents. Our Mom seems to be leaning toward [name_f]Gigi[/name_f] or Mommom. Our Dad hasn’t yet expressed his feelings on what he should be called, but some of the traditional names just don’t seem to fit. What grandpa name do you think best fits a nontraditional grandpa? If you saw him you would never think he could be a grandpa. Or what do you or your children call their grandparents?
*We are in the US if that helps.
We’ve always used nan and granddad in my family, while my cousin uses [name_f]Nanna[/name_f] and Pa! I think [name_f]Nanna[/name_f] is cute, while pops or grandpops sounds a bit more modern.
Well…I live in the US too, and grew up in a small country town…so I’m used to hearing things like Papaw, Papaw, [name_f]Poppy[/name_f], Gramps, G-pop, Bumpa, Grandaddy, Sir (yes, I know someone whose grandkids call him sir; lots of people do), Mamaw, Mama, Granny, Gamma, [name_f]Gigi[/name_f], [name_f]Mimi[/name_f], Gran, [name_f]Nana[/name_f], etc.
Personally, I always used Grandma & Grandpa LastName. A cousin of mine would call our grandpa Grandpa [name_m]Bob[/name_m] (she’d do the same as me, but with first names, basically…it just felt wrong for me to do it, because I was raised to never call an adult by their first name without a title, unless directed).
As for nontraditional grandparent names, I don’t know…there’s some cases where yeah a person doesn’t look like a grandparent. I know a lady who had a son at 15, who had a son at 20-something, so she was a really young grandma. She kinda just let the grandkids name her, as they learned to talk. The first grandkid called her [name_f]Mimi[/name_f], so that is what all of them call her.
My one grandpa died before I could talk so I’m not sure what we would have called him it might have been Grandpop. We called my dad’s parents Mammy and Pop-Pop. My other grandmother is called [name_f]Oma[/name_f].
My grandparents were known as [name_f]Nana[/name_f] and Grandpop. Those are pretty unusual where I’m from
We have:
[name_f]Abbi[/name_f] (short for Abuela) and Papa
[name_f]Lovey[/name_f] and [name_m]Buddy[/name_m]
Grandma and Grandpa- I think they wanted our son (their first grandchild) to come up with a cute mispronunciation of this, but he sort of went from not speaking at all to speaking very clearly so this didn’t happen.
Growing up, we were supposed to call our grandparents “Grandma Last name and Grandpa Last name.” But since we were your typical ungrateful little wretches, in practice we called them “Grandma with the swimming pool” and “Grandma without the swimming pool.”
I’ve known many Gigis, especially great grandmothers. I’ve also heard (or used): Granddad, Grandmom, Grandpa, Grandma, Mom mom (common around here), [name_f]Nana[/name_f], Papa, Grandpop, Granny, Poppop, etc.
If you don’t like any of the traditional ones, is there a nickname that your dad goes by? You might be able to make something out of that or even look at what other regions use and see if he likes any of those. Here’s a site with a lot of options too:
I personally think that Grandma and Grandpa sound way too stuffy and formal, especially when it’s combined with a last name. My parents go by Grammy and Papa (pronounced like Puppa) with my nieces and nephew. Other relatives in my family have used [name_f]Nonnie[/name_f], Pop, [name_f]GeeGee[/name_f] (hard G), Meemaw, Pop Pop, Grampy, and Mom Mom.
Unfortunately, my mother in law chose “Grandma” as her title for my husband’s nephew, so that will probably be the trend for our kids too, unless I sneak in some way for them to make a nickname for her 
My grandparents were Grandma & Grandpa (paternal) & [name_f]Nana[/name_f] & Pop-Pop (maternal). [name_f]Nana[/name_f]'s 94 & is still [name_f]Nana[/name_f] to all six of her grandkids & five great-grandchildren. My mom is Grammy J0 (her choice). My dad & stepmother are Grandad & Grandma J@nie (their choice). My ex’s parents were [name_m]Gram[/name_m] & Pap-Pap for my daughter. I have a stepdaughter & am pretty sure I’ll be a step-grandmother sometime in the next few years & am likely to choose [name_f]Nana[/name_f] for my title to honor my [name_f]Nana[/name_f]. 
I don’t have children yet (soon hopefully) but my brother has four and to them, our parents are [name_f]Nanna[/name_f] and [name_f]Poppy[/name_f].
I always called my Mom’s parents Papa and Grandma and my Dad’s dad Grandpa, my Dad’s mother died when I was one. My great grandparents were always called Grandma or Grandpa first name.
We have nicknamed our daughter’s grandparents, but of course once she talks she might change them.
My parents - PopPop and Gammy
His parents - PawPaw and Grammy
All great grandparents are Grandpa or Grandma first name.
This wouldn’t fit unless your father was a larger man, but one of my grandfathers was pretty big, so we called him Daddy Big. The others grandparents had more traditional names.
We dont have kids yet, nor does my only sister… But I think my parents will go by [name_f]Nanny[/name_f] and Wolfy (Wolfy is what moat people call my dad… Its what he’s gone by since hes a teenager, a nickname based on our surname). Thats what tehy seem to want to be called so we’ll see it if sticks!
My niece on my husbands side calls DHs parents Nonno & [name_f]Nonna[/name_f] (Italian forms of grandma and grandpa)
Personally I’ve always found the dutch terms [name_f]Oma[/name_f] and Opa very endearing.
My cousin (my dad is a LOT younger than his closest sibling) recently became a grandma, she goes by Rara (Rah-rah) a play on her name, [name_f]Rhonda[/name_f].
So maybe a play on your dads name that is easy to pronounce? Good luck, I’m sure you’ll find the perfect term!
I’m Greek so in my family we use the Greek words for grandmother and grandfather: Yiayia (I’ve also seen it spelled Yia Yia) and Babou (I’ve also seen it spelled Papou since it is pronounced with more of a P sound).
One of my grandmothers is not Greek, so we call her Grammy.
My cousins call their grandmother Grams. I have a friend who calls her grandmother Gam. There are a ton of different ways I’m sure you’ll find one that fits!
My dad’s parents are Grandma [name_f]Venie[/name_f] and Grandpa [name_m]George[/name_m]; my mum’s are [name_f]Nana[/name_f] and Papa. I read a book with a grandmother called Grandmary, though I suppose this would only work if she was named [name_f]Mary[/name_f]–she could go by Grand(her name). I also met a man whose grandson called him Pugga.
I called my dad’s parents Grandma and Grandpa and my mom’s parents Grammy and Grampy. My husband calls his mom’s parents Grandma and Grandpa and his dad’s parents Granny and PopPop.
My daughter calls my parents Grandma (sometimes Grammy) and Grandpa now that she can say the /R/ sound. She used to say Gammy and Catpa. Lol! My dad actually loved that and wanted us to teach her to call her other grandma Dogma because she has a dog, but she doesn’t say it anymore and my parents don’t have a cat anymore anyway.
I asked both sets of grandparents what they would like to be called when our daughter was a baby, but they were all like “oh, whatever she wants to call us is fine - let her come up with something”. The problem is, since we don’t see my husband’s family very often, she doesn’t call them anything and now she’s old enough that she will just call them whatever we tell her their names are. When we talk about them, I call them Grandma (first name) and Grandpa (first name) because I don’t know what else to say…
My daughter calls my parents [name_f]Nana[/name_f] and Papa. I chose papa in particular because my father just didn’t look like a grandpa.
My mom’s parents are Grandma and Grandpa, my dad’s parents are Grandmother and Grandfather, and my grandmother’s mother (my only great-grandparent to live until I was born) was Gruther.
My second cousin has a little girl and they live in [name_m]Wales[/name_m] and she calls her nan and granddad ‘Nain’ and ‘Taid’ pronounced as ‘Nine’ and ‘[name_m]Tide[/name_m]’ or as she calls them ‘Nainy’ and ‘Taidy’ which are both Welsh for Grandma and Granddad. I think this is super cute!
I have a Grandma, Grandad, Grandpop (Pops) and [name_f]Nannie[/name_f] [name_f]Annie[/name_f]. My bf’s parents are Filipino and have recently become grandparents, they go bu [name_f]Lola[/name_f] ([name_f]Nan[/name_f]) and [name_f]Lolo[/name_f] (Grandad), my brother and his gf are expecting their first child in [name_u]June[/name_u] so I will be waiting to see what my parents will use themselves. I always liked the fact that my I called my grandparents different names, I think it’s important for your parents to choose themselves what they would like to go by, I’m interested what my dad will choose as he is sensitive about his age already he might choose something non-tradtional to go by.
I know my bf loves the idea of being a Grandpop in the future, or even Grumps which me and my cousins nicknamed Grandpop [name_u]Charlie[/name_u]. I grew up in the UK.