During my lifetime, I have known three grandparents. I have never called any of them by the traditional names.
My one remaining grandmother is not known as Grandma. Neither is she Granny, Nanny or Nan. She is Nana, pronounced Nan-arr (as if she was christened by a pirate).
Nana
Nana’s husband, my grandfather, was called Dada. He was also christened by pirates, so his name was pronounced Dad-arr.
These are the names used by all their grandchildren. I’m not entirely sure where the pirate theme originated from, but I’m pretty certain it had something to do with my eldest cousin Louise, who probably struggled to say Grandma. There’s a similarity between Grandma and Nana, if you say it slowly, in toddler fashion.
In an equally non-traditional way, my other grandmother also shunned Grandma as a name. She had a bobby dazzler of a title: Suntan.
Yep. That is what we actually called her. Without a hint of humour. Her name was Suntan and that was that. No questions asked.
Again, I think this has something to do with my elder cousins. I know they referred to her as Tantan, which in my 2 year old state of mind I probably found quite boring. So, in our house, Tantan was just plain old Suntan. It was a given. She even signed her birthday cards and letter, “Love from, Suntan”.
My 22 month old daughter is currently in the naming phase. She is lucky enough to have all four grandparents to christen. All four grandparents, whom she idolises. Her obsession over each grandparent rivals my own obsession with Gary Barlow. It borders on the unhealthy.
She’s cracked the names of my own parents. This happened with a certain finality over the last couple of days.
My mum, her Grandma, is Mar Mar. Dragging my mother around the house, Frog shouted Mar Mar at the top of her lungs.
The excitement was almost too much to bear when she was met on the road by the newly arrived Mar Mar. Frog’s legs waved around in all their hypermobile glory, like a plasticine man gone wild. She shrieked with elation “MAR MAR! MAR MAR!” before settling into a quivering state of excited shock.
Mar Mar it is then.
She has also newly named her grandfather this weekend. He is the Mark Owen to Mar Mar’s Gary Barlow. Another object of complete obsession. And from now on, he will be known not as Grandad, Grandpa or Pops.
Nope, his name is Dandaz.
Dandaz
Frog’s northern grandparents remain Grandma and Grandad, unless she decides on something different. I’m almost hoping she really mixes it up with something like Sparkly Pants and Icecream Head or an equally bizarre alternative. Or maybe she’ll just stick with Grandma and Grandad, who knows.
So, for now, the grandparents in our life remain as Mar Mar, Dandaz, Grandma and Grandad.
I’m intrigued though, is this normal? Coming from a history of non-traditionally named grandparents, it seems normal enough to me. But what are the grandparents in your life known as?
What a great family tradition!
Nothing so interesting in our family, my sister’s kids have gone for straight up Granny and Grandad. Although they’ve developed into Granny McKnitty and Grandad Flappydappy (I’ve no idea what that’s about). Also, I like the way you’ve managed to shoehorn Gary Barlow into this post. Twice!
Hang on – Granny McKnitty and Grandad Flappydaddy are pretty non-traditional, unique names aren’t they? They’re also absolutely bloody brilliant!
Dandaz, love it! My Mum is ‘JoJo’ to my daughter,(she didn’t want to be given a name in any way associated with being old, God forbid) and to my son, ‘Dodo’. My dad is Gramps, it sort of followed on from the fact I call him Pops. The other side are boring Grandma and Grandad, though Grandad is currently BaBa according to my boy!
I love that your kids have made up their own names. Jojo / Dodo are both equally cool names.
When The Boy was little, he called my dad (now called Grampy) Pee-pee! Thankfully that one didn’t stick… He has Grandma and Grampy, and Grandma and Grandad, and differentiates between the grandmas by calling my mum Normal Grandma as she’s the one he ‘normally’ sees. His great-grandma is known as Big Grandma.
How does Great-Grandma feel about being referred to as “Big Grandma”?! Hilarious and makes utter sense, even if I wouldn’t be too pleased about being called that myself!
Thankfully, Big Grandma is most definitely not big in girth. It would be a whole different matter otherwise…
Ha ha, thank goodness for that!
My children call their grandpa Papoo. My grandfather used to pay my brother and me 1p every time we remembered to call our grandmother Grandma rather than Granny so we made sure we stuck Grandma at the end of every needless sentence and earned enough to but a matchbox car every week. My grandparents’ house was the rub, although I never realised it until adulthood when friends gaped. It was called Tossa.
Papoo? Tossa? Are these names real? I LOVE them! x
I had a Nana too, though I don’t think mine was named by pirates! Other than that, I had Grandad, Grandma & Grandad. Somewhere along the line the latter pair morphed into Gwan & Grump, though I don’t quite know how & why.
My mum (Nana’s daughter) said she’d be anything BUT Nana. So far she seems to be Ganma, though we had a brief phase of calling her “Mum” as opposed to Mummy. My dad is “Poppa”, for no obvious reason. Daddy’s dad doesn’t really seem to have a name yet, we live too far away to see them as often as we’d like.
Gamma and Poppa are rather sweet names. I wonder if they’ll stay that way as the children grow older? Very affectionate and lovely.
Love the names! I am plain old Grandma (couldn’t be Granny as that is my mother so there couldn’t be two of us) but DH is definitely Grumpy (started out as Grampy but that soon changed!). Other grandparents are Nan and Grandad and other great grandmother is Big Nan and is more than happy with that.
The best one I know is my friend who has been named Barmee by her grandchildren!
Barmee is my new favourite name!
Our naming of grandparents has worked out quite well as they all different. My parents are simply grandma and grandpa (although it is pronounced han-pa at the moment). My mother-in-law is Welsh so she is nain which is rather lovely. If my father-in-law had been Welsh he would have been taid but he is most definitely English and goes by the rather but very solid title grandad which the little man took great delight calling out when they came to visit us at the weekend.
Ah that’s very sweet. I love nain as a name. I think cultural differences in the names for grandparents are really interesting and makes them even more unique. x
What a lovely post – I am particularly loving the ‘suntan’ name – makes me giggle at the image of the south of spain with a little too much suntan!
At the time, Suntan seemed like the most normal name in the world. It’s only now, at 28 years old, that I can see it was a tad on the accentric side!
What lovely tradition. xx