What to Call Grandma?
Too many nanas in my family and we are running out of names to call them
With people having longer lives and extended and combined families, what to call the increasing number of grandmothers can be confusing. Have you ever considered an alternative to the numerous Nanas and Mamas? Maybe you could take your inspiration from worldwide when thinking what title to bestow on the newest grandmother in your family.
A gaggle of Grannies
As lifespans get longer, children seem to collect a whole flock of ' grandmothers'
As the brood of grandkids and the number of 'other' grandmothers attached to my family are increasing, a question that comes up is 'what will the new baby call me?'. Every family has its own way of identifying which grandmother they are talking about. Sometimes it is not just as easy as saying "Gran".
I am blessed with a fairly long living matriarchal line. At one point in my family there were 5 living generations... of which 3 generationshad at least one, if not several, suviving grandmothers amongst its members. When I first became a grandmother, both my mother and MY grandmother were still alive. Quite often all 3 of us were in a room with one of my sons and his children. The kids couldn't just call us all 'Grandma', it was too confusing.
For curiosity, i decided to look up what Grandmothers are called around the globe. This is what I found:
Grandmother
Jadda ArabicArabic, Palestinian dialect
Metzmayr Armenian
Amatchi Basque (region in NE Spain/SW France)
Henna Berber (Morocco & Algeria), Northeast/Northwest dialect
Jeeda Berber, Northern dialect
Mamm-Baour Breton (NW France)
Baba Bulgarian
Ãvia, Iaia (used by small children) Catalan (Spain) Chechen-Maternal
Nai-Nai Chinese (Mandarin) - paternal
Baba, Baka Croatian
babic'ka Czech
Mormor Danish - maternal
Fafa Danish - paternal
Oma Dutch
Avino Esperanto
Maadar-e Bozorg Farsi (colloquial) (Iraq)
isoäiti, Mummo, Mummu Finnish Flemish (Belgium)
Grand-maman French
Avoa Galician (Spain)
Bebia (colloq. = Babo) Georgian
Oma German
Yia Yia or yaya Greek - maternal
Nona Greek - paternal
Kupuna wahine, tu-tu-, ku-ku-, ku-ku- wahine Hawaiian
Savta Hebrew
Anyóka, nagyanya Hungarian
amma Icelandic
Dida India - Bengali - maternal
Thakur-ma India - Bengali* - paternal
Nanni India: Gujarati*, Hindi*, Urdu* - maternal
Daadi India: Gujarati*, Hindi*, Urdu* - paternal
Ammamma India - Telugu
Aanaga ("Aana" commonly) nupiaq Eskimo
Maimeó (Mammo) Irish Gaelic
Nonna Italian Kurdish* (Iraq, Turkey, Syria)
vecma-min,a, te-vama-te, ma-tesma-te Latvian
(bobute.) senele. Lithuanian
Jjajja (GAH kyeh) Luganda (southern Uganda)
Nenibe Malagasy (Madagascar)
nenek Malay (Malaysia)
Busia Polish
vovozinha, avó Portuguese
Meme Quebecois (Canada)
bunica(, bunicut, Romanian
Babushka Russian
Baba, Nana Serbian
Abuela/Abuelo Spanish
Tita Spanish - informal (short for Abuelita/Abuelito)
Bibi, Nyanya Swahili -Eastern Africa (only spoken as a lingua franca)
Mormor Swedish - maternal grandparents
Farmor Swedish - paternal grandparents
Teta (Te tah) Syrian
Lola Tagalog (Philippines)
Anneanne (pronounced anna anna) Turkish - maternal
Babaanne Turkish - paternal
Ene Turkmen (Turkmenistan)
babusia, baba Ukrainian
Daadi Urdu (India)
Bibi Uzbek (Uzbekistan)
mmakhulu Venda (northern South Africa)
bà Vietnamese
Nain ("nine") Welsh - northern part
Mam-gu (mam-GHEE with a hard 'g') Welsh - southern part
Bubbe Yiddish
Ugogo Zulu (South Africa)
There are certainly a few different options to think about next time the conversation comes up with the 'other grandma' as to what we are going to be known as.
What do your grandkids call you?
