# Is there really any region where kids call parents "Maw" and "Paw"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 7, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077 "2007-01-07T20:15:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/1 "2007-01-07T20:15:35Z")
I am a sort-of hillbilly, having grown up in the foothills of Appalachia (in north Georgia). When “my people” are depicted [on TV](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055662/), they tend to refer to their parents as “Maw” and “Paw” (or [occasionally](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li'l_Abner) as “Mammy” and Pappy"). This always struck me as odd, since every real-life hillbilly I’ve ever knowed 😉 referred to their parents as or “Momma” and “Daddy.” But then again, I grew up in the foothills. Is there maybe some spot deeper in Appalachia, or elsewhere in the country, where kids really do use “Maw” or “Paw” or “Mammy” or “Pappy”? Or is this all just the fantasy of clueless New York and Hollywood writers? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/2 "2007-01-07T20:45:53Z")
I hear it occassionally in this area. Generally, but not always, used by the less edumicated folks. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/3 "2007-01-07T21:14:00Z")
My neighbor kid used to call his mother “Ma”, but oddly his Aunt was pronounced “Aunt”, which sounded vaguely pretentious to my ears. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/4 "2007-01-07T21:16:44Z")
I have heard Ma and Pa. (The final “w,” when used in spelling, broadens the vowel sound in ways that I suspect are an exaggeration of most dialects). I have particularly encountered it in Southern Indiana and in parts of Michigan with a sizable immigrant community from Southern Indiana or Kentucky. (It was prohibited in my house, as a kid. It reminded my mom, (who grew up in Indianapolis, but whose parents came from Daviess County where she had numerous cousins), of some of her relatives’ neighbors whom she considered to be less than couth.) Deb has a similar experience with her relatives from Greene County. I never polled the ex-Kentuckians who used it to discover what part of that state they had called home. ---
**Author:** ![feppytweed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/feppytweed/32/4280_2.png) [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/5 "2007-01-07T21:37:40Z")
I did. Mississippian here. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/6 "2007-01-07T22:30:29Z")
I heard Paw a good bit, not so much Maw. But, my kids’ granny is often referred to as Mammy. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/7 "2007-01-07T22:32:10Z")
Oh - and here’s a funny anecdote: when my daughter first heard of the book, _The Monkey’s Paw_… you guessed it … She thought it was about the monkey’s Daddy. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/8 "2007-01-07T22:54:34Z")
Northwestern Louisiana here. Momma and Daddy are the most common even through adulthood. ---
**Author:** ![NJ\_Kef\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@NJ\_Kef\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NJ_Kef_1)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/9 "2007-01-07T23:01:39Z")
I don’t know about Appalachia, but I have friends in New Jersey who say Maw as opposed to Ma. Some of them sometimes refer to their mother as [Ma Dukes](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ma+dukes) . My own linguistic upbringing directs me to say Mom or Mother, Dad or Father. I’m always surprised when an adult refers to his/her parents as Mommy and Daddy. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/10 "2007-01-07T23:26:20Z")
My neighbors down the street were from the Ohio River region of West Virginia. The grandkids called them “Mamaw” and “Papaw” (with a long first A) My uncle’s grandkids, in Western PA, call him Pappy. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/11 "2007-01-07T23:40:13Z")
[QUOTE=Common Tater] My neighbor kid used to call his mother “Ma”, but oddly his Aunt was pronounced “Aunt”, which sounded vaguely pretentious to my ears. [/QUOTE] What part of the country? > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > My neighbors down the street were from the Ohio River region of West Virginia. The grandkids called them “Mamaw” and “Papaw” That’s what my family uses for grandparents, too. But grandparents are a whole other kettle of ancestors. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2007, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/12 "2007-01-07T23:43:54Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] I am a sort-of hillbilly, having grown up in the foothills of Appalachia (in north Georgia). When “my people” are depicted [on TV](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055662/), they tend to refer to their parents as “Maw” and “Paw” (or [occasionally](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li'l_Abner) as “Mammy” and Pappy"). This always struck me as odd, since every real-life hillbilly I’ve ever knowed 😉 referred to their parents as or “Momma” and “Daddy.” But then again, I grew up in the foothills. Is there maybe some spot deeper in Appalachia, or elsewhere in the country, where kids really do use “Maw” or “Paw” or “Mammy” or “Pappy”? Or is this all just the fantasy of clueless New York and Hollywood writers? [/QUOTE] Well, arguably the most famous “Ma” and “Pa” were “Ma and Pa Kettle,” who appeared in Betty MacDonald’s [The Egg and I](http://www.amazon.com/Egg-I-Betty-MacDonald/dp/0704102471/sr=8-2/qid=1168211978/ref=sr_1_2/104-0522868-1695921?ie=UTF8&s=books). _The Egg and I_ was ostensibly a memoir about the author’s life as a young married woman on a remote chicken-and-egg farm in the early 20th century. The book was published in the '40s, IIRC, and “Ma and Pa Kettle” went on to star in a number of “C”-grade comic movies in the later '40s and '50s. In the movies, the Kettles were portrayed as goodhearted but simpleminded hillbillies, of the stereotypical Appalachian variety later immortalized in _The Beverly Hillbillies_. But the book _The Egg and I_ was actually set in western Washington state and the Kettles, though poor (and Pa Kettle a notoriously lazy packrat) weren’t clearly the hillbillies they later morphed into. And Betty MacDonald was born in Colorado and raised in Montana and Washington – an parents aren’t called “Ma and Pa” in any of those places, either, so I sort of wonder where the “Ma and Pa Kettle” characters came from. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/13 "2007-01-08T00:24:24Z")
I believe it’s not only a location issue but a time issue. I have no cite unfortunately, but I think Mommy and Daddy are much more common now relative to ma and pa or mama and papa than they used to be. I base this on listening to radio shows from the forties and reading old books and comimc strips. I also suspect that TV has made differences in regional usages disappear to some extent at least. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/14 "2007-01-08T00:29:33Z")
[QUOTE=OldGuy] I believe it’s not only a location issue but a time issue. I have no cite unfortunately, but I think Mommy and Daddy are much more common now relative to ma and pa or mama and papa than they used to be. [/QUOTE] Well, maybe, but my oldest kinfolks (born in north Georgia in the 1920s) all refer to their parents as “Momma” and “Daddy.” ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/15 "2007-01-08T00:46:37Z")
To spice up the mix, my dad and his brothers (in their forties) call their parents “Ma” and “Pa” sometimes, though it’s usually Mom and Dad. So, that’s southwest Wisconsin, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. In contrast, my grandma called her parents Mama and Daddy, and she was born in the '30s. ---
**Author:** ![hazaroah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hazaroah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazaroah)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/16 "2007-01-08T03:53:30Z")
I’m from southeastern IN the greater Cincinnati area. The paternal side of my family hails from the darkest hollers of Appalachian Kentucky. I sometimes call my mother Maw. She hates it as I think it reminds her of my relation to my paternal hillbilly side. My Kentucky grandparents were called Mamaw and Papaw. Indiana grandparents Memaw and Grandad. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/17 "2007-01-08T04:02:50Z")
[QUOTE=hazaroah] I sometimes call my mother Maw. She hates it as I think it reminds her of my relation to my paternal hillbilly side. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but are you doing it just to be funny, or is that actually the word you were raised to use? And do your Dad’s relatives use “Maw” (without irony)? Or do they use “Momma”? As for “Mamaw” and “Papaw,” that seems to be pretty common usage for grandparents among us hill folk. ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/18 "2007-01-08T04:10:40Z")
Me and most of my sib’s used Ma and Pa all the time (and still do). We were raised in the East Bay (near Oakland, CA). My ma is a native Californian and my pa is from New Bedford, Mass. ---
**Author:** ![snailboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@snailboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snailboy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/19 "2007-01-08T04:27:41Z")
When my great-grandmother was still alive, my grandmother called her ma. Other than that, I’ve never heard either term around here. Perhaps it was once used here, but died off. Put me on the list that uses moma and daddy and grandma and papa (pronounced paw-paw, not pah-puh). ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077/20 "2007-01-08T04:33:26Z")
I called my Louisiana grandparents “mamaw” and “papaw.” I’ve heard “ma” used fairly often, not so much “pa” for some reason. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-really-any-region-where-kids-call-parents-maw-and-paw/387077.md?page=2)