Call me queenie instead of grandma, short for queen mama!

I got the idea from Lesley Stahl’s book Becoming Grandma.

Both my grandkids are half Chinese. The oldest, whose maternal grandparents are in residence, speaks Mandarin as a first language, though his English is coming along. I speak some Chinese and am happy to be Nainai, the word for paternal grandmother. The other, whose dad grew up in the USA, says no way to me using Waipo, so I am grandma. I’d prefer something else, but whatever.

Growing up, with midwestern grandparents, they were Grandma and Grandpa last name. The Scottish grandparents, who lived in Scotland were Grandmother and Grandfather last name, at least in their presence.

My oldest was born in Germany and my parents thought they would like being called Oma and Opa, but then changed their mind after a few weeks. My mother was Granmolly, but my father wanted to be Grandpa, which was what the other Grandpa also wanted. For a while my brother’s kids called him Grandpa __ (his first name), but he didn’t like that either. So in the end we had to refer to them at home at least as Grandpa who lives in X vs Y.

If my youngest ever gets around to having a kid, I suspect we won’t have that problem as I think her parents will use the Chinese words. (She’s from Hong Kong.)

I only recall one grandparent growing up, the others dies when I was young. We called her Nana. My kids used grandma first name and grandpa first name for all.
Only one of the grandchildren talks and he has decided my husband is Baba and I’m Ama. His other grandmother is Nana. I don’t know if our names will change as he gets older. We started out calling ourselves grandma and grandpa.

When son was born, MIL insisted they be called Nanny and Poppy because that’s what she called her grandparents. That left Grandma and Grandpa for my parents, which was fine. No one wanted to be Bubbe and Zayde. We do have friends back east who go by those titles.

If I ever end up with grandchildren, you can call me Astonished.

Of all these choices, I might go with Kitty. Just because. 70 Cool Grandma Names 2023 - Best Nicknames for Grandmas

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And my father’s brother (who looked very much like him) became Big Old Uncle Rob when my daughter was confused between him (my uncle) and my brother (her uncle), both named Rob and was frustrated and said ‘No not him Wob, that big ol’ unca Wob!’ Things stick.

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Well maybe I should have chosen Abba, as I am a big fan of that group :slight_smile:

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From that list, I did have friends that used Tutu as they were living in Hawaii when the first grandchild was born. Current friends are mormor as their grandchildren live in Norway.

I think I’m going for Birdy. I like that

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And, “Queenie,” is on that list! :crown:

Abba is father/daddy in Hebrew.

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My grandparents were always Bobbie and Zeida, and my kid and their cousins call my mother Bobbie and called my father Zeida (Yiddish). My brother’s grandkids call him “Saba” (Hebrew), and my SiL’s grandkids call her Baba and my BiL is Deda (Russian). My wife will probably be Baba, and I will probably be Saba. Since I didn’t grow up speaking Yiddish or being surrounded by Yiddish, “Zeida” doesn’t connect. No English-based one works for me ether.

I actually don’t notice any trend of not using one of the many names for grandparents.

Moreover, that “writer” is a prolific producer of clickbait, and that is what this is.

Babusya is Ukrainian for grandmother, but my guess is that DIL’s mom gets that nickname, which is absolutely fine with me. I can’t picture myself as Bubbie, but I could definitely see H as Zayde.

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To be ever so pedantic (because why not?), “Abba” is from Aramaic, as indicated by the last letter being an alef. The Hebrew term would be “Av”, but Aramaic became the common language spoken by Jews, and even when speaking Hebrew, Abba replaced the Hebrew term, especially in informal settings, which is why it is used for “dad” or “daddy”. Similarly “Imma” is the Aramaic word, versus “Emm”, which is the Hebrew word.

In Hebrew people did not simply say “father”, but “my father” (Avi) or “my mother” (Immi) when speaking to or of their parent. Arabic is similar, and I’m not certain why Aramaic is different.

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No matter what name you (or your grandchild ) chooses, you heart melts the first time they look at you, smile and say that name…

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I am still waiting to see if and when we will ever have grandkids. H would like to be gung gung, as our folks were to our kids and I’m still undecided. I’m not feeling like popo, as to me, that’s prior generations of grandmas but I honestly don’t care too much.

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