My Dad’s Parents were Grandma and Grandpa Charlie. (Because Grandpa Charlie was my Step Grandma and had to be differentiated from Grandpa Frank, my biological Grandpa).
My Mom’s Parents were Grandpa & Grandma Ruth. (Again, Ruth was my stepgrandmother).
My nephews have different names for every set of grandparents. To them, My BIL parents are Gaga & Baca, BIL Grandparents are GG (Great Grandmother) and Daddy Buck, My sisters Father & His wife are Nana & Papa and our parents are Grandma and Grandpa.
Dad’s parents were Grandpa and Grandma. If there was confusion, we’d include out last name.
Mom’s mom was Grandma Ginny. Her husband was Bud. Her mother was Just Grandma.
Why Just Grandma? I thought it was because she lived by herself, as in “We’re going to Just Grandma’s house.” My brother set me straight. When he was younger he asked if we should call her Grandma, or Great Grandma, or what. She said “Oh, just Grandma.” It stuck for the rest of her life.
My great-grandmother was Little Grandma - somehow due to her age more than physical size. OK, I never figured that one out either - but it worked and felt fine.
Both sets of my grandparents were Grandma and Grandpa to me. My mom called her grandmother Nana, though, and that’s what she wanted to be to her grandkids. And so she is, to my sister’s daughters and my sons. My dad is Grandpa to all of them, except for an odd interlude when my younger niece was around 3, when she decided that he was to be called…
Zippy.
Good thing it wasn’t Goofy or Skippy or something like that, because that would have made no sense at all.
I second this. I’ve noticed that my cousins on my dad’s side call their grandparents by using their last name. So my “Grandma Dorothy” is their “Grandma Jacobs”.
However, when I’m talking to them directly, I drop their name and just say “Hey, Grandma”.
On the flip side, with aunts and uncles, I refer to them as title + name (“Uncle Nick”), but when talking to them, I drop the title and just say their name.
My maternal grandparents were Mormor <Mother’s Mother> and Grandpa Lastname. She had a thing for emphasizing our Swedish heritage, and I didn’t meet him until I was an adult (they were divorced before I was born).
My paternal grandparents are Grandma and Grandpa to their faces, and Grandma/Grandpa Firstname when talking about them.
The two great-grandmothers that I ever met were both Grandma Lastname.
Ditto for my maternal grandmother (the only grandparent I ever knew personally – my maternal grandfather died the year I was born and my paternal grandparents lived in England). Nitpick: According to my mother, “bah-chee” really means “grandma” rather than “grandmother”.
When young, I called my dad’s parents Nana and Baba. Always wondered where those names came from. Not ethnic, as my father’s ancestors were English all the way back to the late 1600s when the first one immigrated. I have no idea whether they, or my parents so dubbed them.
My mom’s parents were grandma and grandpa. They were born in Nebraska, of Irish descent.
My dad’s mother is bubbe, the Yiddish word for grandmother. I never knew my dad’s father, and thus don’t really have a name for him. I suppose if I did, it would be zeyde (also Yiddish).
Never knew my paternal grandfather; we called my grandmother something like “Granma’Lizabeth,” where we used just part of her real name like that and said it all as if it were one word.
My maternal grandparents were “Granpaw” (no “d”) and Mom’Betty, again as if it were one word, but in this case a variation of her full name. She was my mother’s stepmom, so I’ve always assumed the “Mom” and “Name” construction was to make that distinction, and what my Mom had called her as a child.
My mom’s parents were Grammy and Grampy, and my grandfather’s parents who were still living when I was young were Great-Grammy and Great-Grampy. I’ve heard this name pair is most common in Portuguese and French-Canadian families, but who knows.
My dad’s mother died before I was born, and we so seldom saw my dad’s father (I saw him perhaps 10 times before he died when I was 23) that we didn’t have a name for him. When talking about him with Dad we simply have always referred to him as “your father.”
Mom still won’t talk about her father, never met him, I think he’s dead. No name for him.
Great-grandparents -
Dad’s side:
All dead before I was born. No names for them.
Mom’s side:
Nana and Papa. Nana died when I was just a baby. I met Papa as a very young child. He died shortly thereafter. I wish I could have known him. I remember tagging along as my dad cleaned out his apartment after his death, but not much else.
My paternal grandparents were Grandad and Grosie. Grosie was short for the German Grosmutter (not sure of the spelling or accents). She was PA Dutch.
My maternal grandparents were Granny and Pop. Pop was called that by his kids, his grandkids, great grandkids and many of the men that he worked with over the years.
My mom’s paternal grandmother, who lived until I was in school, was Grandma K. Her maternal grandfather, who passed when I was a toddler, was Grand-da (he was from Ireland).
My parents are Grandma and Grandpa to the grandkids and Grandma Firstname and Grandaddy to the great grandkids.
To my former stepson’s kids, I’m Mimi. They have different names for all of their grandparents, great and great great grandparents.