<p>A poster on another forum I read, recently posted that their “papaw” died. 
I want to give them my condolesnces and am unfamiliar with the term–does it refer to one’s father or grandfather?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I’ve only heard that word used for grandpa.</p>
<p>Grandpa? ?</p>
<p>I use Papaw/Papa for my grandfathers. I know that some kids’ books use the term Papa for the father, but especially with the spelling in this case, I’m thinking it is referring to a grandfather.</p>
<p>Grandfather. Often times these people will then refer to the grandmother as MeeMaw or Nana.</p>
<p>Is the basis for these nicknames from a foreign language?</p>
<p>I vote grandfather.</p>
<p>When I was a kid, both of my grandmothers were Grandma and both grandfathers Grandpa. My wife’s grandparents, however, were Mimi and Papa.</p>
<p>Our own kids ended up using hybrid names for whatever reason. My dad is Papa Joe<em>, my wife’s dad is Papa Vern</em>. But my mom is Grandma Wanda*, while my wife’s mom is just Mimi.</p>
<p>** names changed to protect me from being associated with them*</p>
<p>your pa’s pa is your grampa, aka papa. Not to be confused with the 3 legged dog who walked into a bar and said, “I’m lookin for the man who shot my Paw”</p>
<p>Oh, I forgot about Mimi, another common reference. I heard all of these while living in SE Texas. Would say these nicknames are a southern thing?</p>
<p>I don’t know the source of the many different “names” we use for grandparents, but my sister is asking that her first grandchild (due any day) call her “Nana”. Why? Because she says that she thinks she has a better than 50% chance that “Nana” will be his first word!</p>
<p>“Papa” could be either, but is more likely to mean “father”. “Papaw” or “pawpaw” would only mean “grandfather”. Don’t ask me to explain why, but I have a high degree of confidence in this.</p>
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<p>I would say so.</p>
<p>My S’s have called their grandfather (my FIL) Pawpaw all their lives. DH called his grandfather the same thing. Grandmothers are “grandma firstname”. </p>
<p>I have friends who are grandmothers that go by Mimi, Nana, Nona, Mom-Mom and Me-moma</p>
<p>no cutesy names for my Southern grandmother. She was Granny. Which is what my kids now call my mom. We did call my Southern grandfather Papa though. My cousins called their other set of grandparents Mammer and Papper.</p>
<p>Our kids have called their grandparents Grandma and Grandpa (Insert Last Name). In my father’s family (one side which was French Canadian from way back), his grandparents were known as Mem-ay and Pep-ay. Haven’t decided what to ask the grandkids to call us. Other family members have chosen Pop-Pop and Mimi. Not sure about those for me…</p>
<p>As an “only grandchild” at two, D was confused that I called my Dad “daddy” --the same name she called H. So she named her Granddad “deedah” (reversing the vowels of daddy.) So “Deedah” he became to all his grandchildren.</p>
<p>My mother’s parents were Papa and Mutti to me, because that’s what they were to her as a child growing up in Berlin.</p>
<p>We have a Pap-paw and and a Mam-maw on one side (Indiana) and a Nonny and PopPop/papa on the other side (Florida). Pappaw and Papaw are common names for grandfathers.</p>
<p>Our girls refer to their grandma as “bubbie.” A Yiddish term. If they had a surviving grandfather, he’d be “zayde.”</p>
<p>For us, “Pau Pau” is Grandma and “Gon Gon” is Grandpa. This is how my in-laws preferred to be called. On my side, we just call them “Grandma” and “Grandpa.”</p>