Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Bamma and Bampa? Babcia or Bubbie?

What did you call your grandparents?

What do your children call their grandparents, or great-grandparents?

Some families use ethnic words for grandma and grandpa. Some go with "Grandma Brown" or "Grandpa Joe." Some choose completely personal nicknames, especially when there are multiple grandmas or grandpas around. Some of the nicknames come out of children's mispronunciations; my FarAwaySis could only manage "Bamma" and "Bampa" as a toddler.

My own children called my mother "Grandma Soup." The only reason for that--besides distinguishing her from their other grandmother--was that when The Apprentice was very small, my mother used to come babysit her sometimes, and stay for lunch, and lunch was usually...soup. So--Grandma-who-comes-for-soup, Grandma Soup.

Here's a list of all kinds of other possibilities.

3 comments:

Beck's Bounty said...

When our oldest was just over a year old, my mother wanted him to choose a name for her - Grannie or Grandma. Well, we tried and tried to get him to say either name, and the choices became Ninnie or Dumma .... and she is Dumma to this day, to all of hte grandchildren. HA !

Grace & Peace,
Tammy
http://www.simplybecksbounty.blogspot.com
http://www.becksbounty.blogspot.com

Elisheva Hannah Levin said...

We are so traditional!. My mother is Grandma Lynn, and my dad is Pappa. (I have no idea why, but all the cousins spell it with two p's).

But my kids do have a cousin Oakley. He is older than all of the other counsins, and he wears the sunglasses.

Anonymous said...

We have Grandma Nailpolish and, of course, Grandma No-Nailpolish...you can probably make the leap as to how those came about from a toddler. Great Grandma is known as Nana so as not to be confusing on the Grandma front.