I have recently found out that I am going to be a Grandmother for the first time. A new adventure opening up on the horizon with a new person coming into the world. I have not got my head around the idea just yet. My daughter in law had asked me what I wanted to be called, for Grandmother. I told her I wasn’t sure. I am not sure I will have a choice either because I think the grandchild can be the one who picks the name.
I called my maternal Grandmother and my husband’s Grandmother, Nana. I do not like the name Nana so much. I am not crazy about Grandma either. I was inspired by a website by the Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth called Mormor Chronicles. Mormor is the Norwegian name for Grandmother. On the home page it says: ” Wise Words and Waffles from Nanas of Norway.” She photographed and interviewed several older women for the website. She wanted to give a voice to older women and show that Mormors don’t always match the stereotypes of Grandmother.
I know that Grandmothers in America today are not like the stereotypes of those in the past either. Some young women may say, when describing themselves, ” I am such a Grandma,” meaning the sterotype image of staying at home, knitting, and baking cookies. While I might appreciate these activities in others it does not describe me. I like to eat cookies but do not bake.
I did a little research with Google Translate to see what Grandmother is in a few other languages. I found there are several Pinterest boards and other websites that cover grandparent names. It’s kind of like those baby name sites.
A few names from the long list:
- Amma (Icelandic)
- Oma (German)
- Babushka (Russian)
- Nonna ( Italian)
- Yiayiá (Greek)
- Mèmè (French)
I am leaning toward the last one. Kinda sweet, don’t you think? What did/do you call your Grandmother?
Featured Image is “Lady with the Veil” ( the artist’s wife) by Alexander Roslin on Wikipedia.
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 
First, congratulations!
When I was really young and just getting to know Grandma Holton, I asked her what I should call her. She told me, “well, you can call me Kate, or you can call me Grandma.” I tried Kate, then said, “I’ll call you Grandma.” Mom, on the other hand, wanted to be called Nana. One of our friends from church has a bunch of grandkids and they call her MeMe. I guess whatever you can live with is all right.
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Thanks John! Sounds like Kate was not serious about you calling her by her name. Nice to hear about all the different choices the Grandmothers made. It is true it is a personal choice. 🙂
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Aww congratulations on becoming a grand-ma soon! So exciting! I have two grand kids, a girl who will be 3 in a couple of weeks, and a boy who will be 7 in October. Here’s what they call me… my grand-daughter calls me ‘Bop’ and my grand-son calls me ‘Grammy’ 🙂 What I used to call mine were ‘ma-moo’ (later just grandma) and the other was Granny. 🙂
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Thank You Weena. Bop is pretty cute and Ma-moo is pretty interesting. I think all the names are special because it means so much to us. 🙂
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I am Grandma Joey. I called my grandmothers Gramma Willie and Grandma Packard. I called my great grandmother Granny. My husband’s grandparents are called Granny and Happy, cause someone struggled with Pappy and that’s what we got. My in-laws are called Mamaw and Papaw. Although my littlest nephew called her Mimi for a long time. We’ll get back to that. My older nephew has Abuela. My mother is called Grandma. My dad is Papa and my father is Grandpa George. My older kids have Grammy and PopPop.
One of my friends insists we all call her Nana Ann, cause she has 12 grandchildren.
The world is filled with mimis now. Everyone’s a mimi. It’s like no one wants to be a grandmother, and they’re all too young and hip to be grannies. I’m not sayin you lookin for other names is bad at all, I’m just sharing how my generation is dealing with the issue.
If Grandma fills you with a feeling of not yourself, well, I think you should choose something that makes you comfortable, although it may be derailed depending on the speech of the bebe, at least for a smidge. 🙂
And Congratulations!
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You have a lot of Grandparent names to keep straight. I have thought about how the baby may pronounce it the way he wants or can. 😀 It is really special to be called some version of Grandma in any way they say it. Thank You, Joey!
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Here in Appalachia most grandparents are referred to as Mommaw or Poppaw. I have decided, I am going to be Mimzy. It’s different and magical sounding.
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It is interesting to read about all the different names used all over the world. I like the idea of chosing our names and hopefully the little ones will agree with us. Mimzy is sweet. 🙂
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