I was writing a sentence much like this:
“Gee, Sis, we need to put Dad in a home.”
And for various reasons wanted to change the gender. Other than “bro,” which doesn’t really correspond to “sis” and has been co-opted by urbanspeak, I can’t come up with a single word that is a combination of name, gender and family-member identifier for a male sibling.
What am I missing?
Why not?
Bruv?
It just doesn’t strike me as being quite as… name-ish.
It’s directly substitutable in “Hey, Sis, whatcha doing?” or “Hi, Sis!” but sounds awkward in other cases:
“Sis says she’s going to be home late.”
“How’s Sis doing these days?”
or my original example. Other than maybe “Buddy” or “Bud,” I can’t think of a generic family name for a male that works exactly like “Sis” in third-person reference, or even all second-person cases.
(I actually have an aunt who has been called Sissy her whole life because neither she nor anyone else liked her real name.)
That’s because you’re used to using sis in those cases. The examples you give sound horribly awkward to me, because I have never called my sister “Sis.”
However, for US Southerners anyway, the name you’re looking for is Bubba, an infantile corruption of the word brother.
Personally, I’d just use “Brother.” Or maybe the Hawaiian “Brudda,” (but that might be a little obscure). I agree that “Bro” doesn’t convey the same sort of meaning as “Sis,” and (just to me). I wouldn’t call anyone “Bubba” that isn’t used to being called that. That’s usually a moniker that starts at a very young age. “Bud” and “Buddy” (again, just to me), indicate a less close relationship that brother.
Yeah, “Bro” is exactly what me and my brother use for each other in the same manner as “Sis” is being used.
You can use br’er as in Br’er Rabbit.
(Of course, you don’t pronounce it ‘brair’, but with a guttural stop in place of the ‘th’ in brother so it sounds more like bru’er.)
Also, ‘bro’ was used for a long time for an actual brother before it became the ‘brah’ of frat boys and the ‘broh’ of homies.
Yeah, my brother and I will sometimes use “bro” in these other contexts, but our primary use is as “Bro” to refer to each other as brothers. And it seems to be used with his friends and my friends (we’re 6 years apart; I’m 37, he’s 31) similarly. His friends will ask me how “my bro” is doing, and will speak to their own siblings using “Bro” as a vocative.
Yep, it’s bruv in the UK.
Okay, thanks, all. I may be approaching the question from a narrow viewpoint, but I’m not overlooking any word I would use in this case. It’s not all that important, just bugged me that I couldn’t bring a good equivalent to mind.
Not too common hereabouts but I refer to my brothers as bruvnor. 
Not everywhere in the UK, my bro is Bro, Superbro and Springtime’s Bro to my old schoolfriends.
The mini-pins are Bub and Sis, or Bubba and Sissy. I don’t know how widespread these terms are, but seem common in the Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas areas I’m familiar with.
Ditto.