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From: <>
Subject: [APG] Names for grandparents
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:38:11 -0600


Recently I came across a couple who were called MeeMaw and PeePaw by their grandchildren. (And I hope nobody out there is called this, because I think PeePaw is hilarious!)

This started me thinking about all the variations: MawMaw/PawPaw, Grandma/Grandpa; Granny/Gramps; Nanny/Pappy; PapPaw; Grandmommy; Big Mama/Big Papa; etc. Two of my grandchildren have a grandfather called "G.D."--I suppose for Granddad, although other things come to my mind <g>.

So what? you ask.

Well, I was sitting here just a'ponderin' whether or not this was more a southern thang or not. Could you please tell me the grandparent nicknames used in your families and where your people are from--I'd like to see if there is a pattern, and, if so, what it might be. Maybe I'm just having a hard time seeing somebody from Rhode Island calling their grandfather PeePaw . . . but one never knows, do one?

I think grandparent names are like parent names; that is, they consist of sounds that a small child can say. Mama and Dada or Mommy and Daddy are easy for toddlers to pronounce; you don't hear many 4-year-olds calling their parents "mother" and "father," leastways not where I come from <g>.

By the way, when my first grandchild was born 14 years ago. I was asked what I wanted to be called. This child had 21 living grandparents at the time of his birth. I was living in Austria at the time (although I came home for the event) and I chose to be called "Oma"--the German name for a grandmother. So far as I've heard, I'm the only Oma around these here parts. (And those of you who know me personally, can probably guess that I preferred a unique and rather eccentric nickname!)

I know the Spanish for grandmother is Abuela, but I don't know if Hispanics actually use that term familiarly. Do blacks have a pattern of grandparent names? Other ethnic groups? Or regions?

Any and all input invited. I'm just curious . . . although if I really find a pattern, I might turn the results into a short (and possibly humorous) article--with proper attribution of sources, of course. Regards, Carolyn


Carolyn Earle Billingsley, Ph.D.
2100 Pleasant Grove, Alexander, AR 72002-9154
www.cebillingsley.net
The central organizing principle in the discipline of
genealogy is the reconstruction and analysis of kinship.

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