What do you call your grandmother?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Put this in subtle (or not so subtle) linguistic clues about your background.

My grandmother, long since deceased, was always “Nana”. Never really thought about it until I was thinking about what other people call their grandmothers. Looked up “Nana”, and it apparently is indicative of being from “the Northeast [of the US]”. And I am from the Northeast (as was Nana).

So, what do you call granny (there’s one, right there)? Does it say anything about your background?

Speaking of “granny”, I thought it was quite interesting that in Downton Abbey, the very upper class girls call their grandmother “granny”, whereas that would be considered a hick term in the US (see: Beverly Hillbillies).

2

Mine were always “Grandma,” and my family was from Pennsylvania. My husband’s was also “Grandma,” and she was from Iowa, and that’s what our girls called both of their grandmas as well. Regardless of what your source may have said about regions, I’ve seen “Nana” from native New Mexicans quite a bit as well.

3

Mother’s mother was “Granny”. Father’s mother was “Grandma”. Father’s father was “Grandpa”. I forget what we called my mother’s father since he died when I was quite young. I’m originally from Ottawa.

4

I only ever knew one grandmother as the other died before I was born. I and all my sibs and cousins called her Mommo (and we called grandpa Poppo). This was as far as I was aware unique to our family. The name came from the old jazz song “Oh Mommo Mommo Mommo, where were you last night? 'Cause the last time I saw you, your hat didn’t look just right.” Poppo was an obvious analogy. I grew up in the Cleveland OH area.

My son called my mother and father Gramma and PopPop.

5

My one grandmother died before she was old enough to have grandchildren. My other grandmother was Nana. Which is not usual in Italian families.

6

My mom’s mom is grandma and my dad’s mom is grandmother. Sorry, nothing linguistically intriguing or revelatory about that.

7

I only knew one pair of grandparents (one from each side, married to each other), and they were “Grandma” and “Grandpa,” kind of slurring into “Gram-ma” and “Gram-pa.”

8

I never knew my maternal grandmother, as she and my mother were estranged. I called my dad’s mother “Granny.”

9

My Italian friends generally use some variant of “Nonni”, not “Nana”.

10

The one grandparent I had was grandma. I’m Georgia (USA) born and bred.

11

My father’s parents were Gram-ma and Gram-pa. My mother’s mother died before I was born but we knew her father as Poppa. These were Irish-German and Irish families in the Bronx.

In my neighborhood I never knew anybody who called their grandmother “Nana.”

12

The only grandmother I knew I called, “Grandma.” She was from the Midwest.

13

My father’s parents are Grandma and Granddaddy. My mother’s mother was Granny. My mother’s father died long before I was born.

My family is from the South. Georgia and Alabama to be specific.

14

Gramma or Gramma [Lastname] if there’s a need to differentiate which one.

Likewise Grampa. One of my cousins calls our mutual one “poppa” though, which I find utterly weird.

15

Mom’s side: Gram and Gramp or Grampy. Never Grandma and Grampa. Only used firstname or lastname with “Gram” or “Gramp” if we had to differentiate them from other grandmothers or grandfathers.

Dad’s side: “Gram <lastname>” and “Grampa <firstname>”. “Gram <firstname>” wasn’t unheard of but not as common as “Gram <lastname>”. Never “Grampa <lastname>” as far as I can remember.

16

I had a Nana (she was from California) and a Grossi (she was Swiss).

17

Mom’s mom is Granny or Gran, Dad’s mom was Grandma. My nieces call my mom Granny as well.

Mom’s dad was Granddad, Dad’s dad was Grandpa.

It made sense to me to have different names for different grandparents, and I wondered why everyone else didn’t do it too.

18

My one grandmother we called “Memer.” That was because my cousin couldn’t say “grandmother.”

19

From the Mid-Atlantic, maternal grandparents were Nana and Granddaddy; paternal grandparents were Grandmom and Grandpap.

20

I had 2 Grandmas. My maternal grandmother would sign the cards accompanying our annual underwear-and-50-cent-piece package “Grams,” but she was such a harridan that none of us would call her that.

Predictably, we lost our good Grandma early on and were stuck with the old hag for decades.