What weird names did you call one or more of your grandparents growing up? We all know we have two sets of grandparents, and, at least in my experience, one usually doesn’t refer to both grandmothers as “Grandma”, but they have distinct “titles”.
In my family, my brother and I were the younger cousins, and so by the time we appeared on the scene, the preferred title of my dad’s mother was already firmly entrenched. That title was “Mommy Alice”, a name which seemed completely natural to me at the time, but now I see just how freaking unusual it is. The story is that she didn’t want to be called “Grandma” or anything like that. My other grandmother was always just “Grandma”; she didn’t seem to mind. That automatically made her husband “Grandpa”; my other grandfather died before I was born.
So what weird names for your grandparents or other relatives did you have in your family?
Mother’s parents: Papa and Cissy. Cissy is Cissy because she used to call me that all the time when I was a little girl. Then I called her Cissy. It stuck.
Father’s parents: Grandpapa and Mimi. Grandpapa was Grandpapa to distinguish him from Papa, I think. Mimi was (is!) Mimi to everyone to whom she is not Sunny. Her real name, Ida Mae, is used on her driver’s license and almost nowhere else. Sweet ol’ Southern lady.
My StepGrandparents we called by their first names. Mom thought that was disrespectful, but my Step Dad preferred it. We called my paternal grandmother Grandma J, the J standing for her last name. My maternal grandmother we sometimes called Granny C, again for the last name, but when we got a little older she was always “Teensy”
Here’s the story: I was in the high school play my senior year, and my mother and Granny C said they would attend. My sister and her friend showed up separately, and were going to look for my mom and grandma in the audience to sit with them, but my sister claimed she couldnt find them (high school play = LOTS of empty seats) Well after the play was over, my sister and her friend found mom and grandma outside, and explained that they didnt see where mom and grandma were sitting. To which grandma, weighing in at 350 lbs easily, replied:
“Oh, right. You couldnt see me because I’m so teensy.” We laughed out loud for a good 5 minutes, and ever since that day she was known as Teensy. And she loved being called that.
My father’s side is American and my mother’s side is Iranian. I called my dad’s parent’s grandma and grandpa. My mother’s parents were mamanbozorg and bababozorg.
The confusion came in when I was referring to them in the same language. My solution for this- my father’s mother was English grandma and my mother’s mother was Farsi grandma.
Not strictly accurate, if they are long since dead by the time you are born.
I only had one set. My kid has one Grandma he sees, and the surviving Grandpa probably won’t be around too much longer (he’s all messed up!). My mom is too busy super-glueing her lips to my sister’s ass to take the time to make the 30 mile drive to see him, so I don’t really care what he calls her.
As far as I care, “family” is me, my wife and my kid. Period.
(Hey, Mom! Fucko Off!)
She told me she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy!
My maternal grandparents were Busi and Dziadzi. My paternal grandparents were The Other Busi and The Other Dziadzi. Clever, huh?
Dad’s parents really didn’t speak English, so we weren’t very close to them. So they weren’t exactly our grandparents, they were The Other grandparents. They both died long ago.
Mom’s parents came to live with my folks during their last years. At that point, my mom became Busi Chick to her grandkids, and her mother became Busi Julie. Then my dad was Dziadzi Ted and my grandfather was Dziadzi Frank. It worked quite well. Too bad we didn’t think of that naming convention when we were little kids.
I’m really the anomoly here - because of my grandparents’ and my parents’ multiple marriages, I have many more than the allotted 4 grands.
Mom’s mom is Gramma G. Mom’s dad was Grampa. Mom’s stepdad was Papa - he died when I was only eight, so it was not confusing to me when my stepfather’s grandfather stepped in and became Papa a few years later. Mom’s stepmom was always referred to by her first name, although I was never sure why - it wasn’t even a pretty name. Dad’s mom was Grandma L, his dad was Grampy. Stepdad’s parents were Nonny and Poppy, and his grandparents (who were alive until I was well into my 20s) were Papa and Nana. SECOND stepdad’s parents were Gran and Pop. When dad remarried, HIS wife’s parents were Grandma and Grandpa S., and her grandmother (who lived until I was in my late teens) was Great Grandmother.
My mom referred to her grandmothers as “Cookie Gramma” and “Spaghetti Gramma” although they both died when she was young, and both her grandfathers died before she was born.
My daughter refers to my mom as Nonny, and my husband’s parents as Grandma and Grandpa. My grandmother is called “Great Gramma Precious” because she had gone a little senile by the time my daughter was born, and all she ever said to her was, “Yes, you are just precious precious precious!”
My grandma on my mom’s side is Mimi. See, when my French-Canadian mom was young, she couldn’t call her grandmother “grand-mere” (sp?), and so somehow she became Mimi. Therefore, my grandma became Mimi when my cousin and I were born. It has nothing to do with her real name, which is Roselind. My grandpa on my mom’s side died when I was only a few months old. My younger sister and I call him Grandpa (last-name), or “your dad” when talking to my mom.
My grandparents on my dad’s side were originally Grandma and Grandpa. Somehow, when my sister was born, though, they became Eema and Eepa, which look REALLY weird on paper, but stuck through to the end for my sister and I.
The terms “mother” and “father” don’t get used in my family much; too dry. Mom and Dad are never called Mother and Father, and I have no “grandmother” or “grandfather.”
My dad’s father was Grampa, and his mother is Grandma.
On my mother’s side, my grandfather was called Papa (that side of the family is pretty darn Irish, but I really don’t know if that has anything to do with it). My grandmother was gone by the time we arrived on the scene, but she was Nana nonetheless. My mother has already made it clear that she is going to be a “Nana,” when we have children of our own. Time will tell what my dad does…
We called my great-grandmother (on my father’s side) Gi Gi, which came from GG, which of course was the abbreviation for “Great Grandmother.”
When I was a kid, the maternals were "Big Grandpa and Big Grandma, " and the paternals were “Little Grandpa and Little Grandma.”
This was because of the relative heights/widths of the grandfathers, grandmothers nonwithstanding.
And since my father’s father died before I was born, I only knew “Little Grandma.” (The names were coined by my older sisters.)
My children knew their grandparents as “Grandpa Lee and Grandma Betty” and “Grandpa Bill and Grandma Mary.”
Only my 13 year old daughter, though, because my mother died in '96 and my father died in ‘01. Now they just know their mom’s parents as regular ol’ Grandma and Grandpa.
And my wife called her grandmother “Yaya,” which is Greek for “Grandma.” She’s trying to get the kids to call HER mom that, but I guess they’re too Americanized.
On my dads side, it’s D and GranGran. Not sure why we call her D though, her real name is Mary. On my moms side, my grandfather dies before I was born, and my grandmother was Grammy Chaffee.
Dad’s parents, who I didn’t know well: Granny B and PawPaw.
My 3 year old daughter has all sorts of fun. All 4 of her great-grandmothers are still alive, plus a full set of grandparents. She’s running out of names.