Hey Grandma or Nana or Papa

Posted by Maryan Pelland Sep 14, 2006

A wonderful list of names for American and for international grandparents makes you want to think long about the topic.

My grandson is five months old and we haven't yet decided - I suppose I'll stick with the traditional "Grandma." But I wonder how something like "Busha" would fit? That's what I called my Polish grandma when I was very young. Later, I called both my maternal and paternal grandmothers "Gramma." No d, just Gramma. When differentiating between the two women, my sibs and I added their surname to Gramma.

When my kids were young, my mother asked me if she could be "Gramma Mary" instead of using our family surname, mostly because she never liked her mother-in-law and didn't want the same name.

If you're waiting for a new grandchild, you can consider Nana and Papa. Or how 'bout Bubbe and Gramps? Then there's Granny, Pa, Gram, Gran, Grandpa, or Granddad. I had a friend who called her grandparents MomMom and PopPop. Didn't do a thing for me.

Getting in to it? Go peruse the list submitted by readers of a neat Web site. You'll see Abi-Gabbi, Alvin and Butterbutt (??), Oma and Opa, Meme and Pepe (French Canadian).

I wish you luck with the decision - but I'll tell you something first-hand. Doesn't matter a fig what they call you. The sticky kisses and squishy hugs are what it's all about.

Here are a few more links:

At Civitas, scroll down to "Choosing Your Name" (a PDF file that requires Adobe Acrobat Reader ) on the right side of the page.

A neat article from Australia about why we have such diverse names.

And a list from NewParents.com