To want my adult niece and nephew to call my Aunty Emma?

36 and would never drop the auntie or uncle when I addressed my aunts and uncles. It would feel rude.

Tell them you’re auntgender, your name is Aunty Emma, and if they call you just Emma again, they’re deadnaming you. 😂

I’m Aunty Whothe to my adult Godchildren, my friend’s two under fives and very young nieces and nephews, which I love. I’m Whothe to teen nephews and nieces, which I don’t love, but they call me Aunty Whothe when they’re talking about me.

I wouldn’t dream of calling my remaining aunts and uncles by their first names, even if a few of them have told me it’s fine to. I was taught that it was really rude and I can’t quite shake that off. I don’t think it’s rude for our younger ones to call me by my first name, but I do love being their aunty and having that title, rather than just being some random adult their parents know.

Oh if only you were.

I'm speechless at this!

Massive generalisation? Chip on shoulder? And who are these 'ordinary people' you mention? Don't think I've ever met one of those.

You can't be serious - you are all adults now. Surely even by teen years the auntie/uncle prefix is dropped. I certainly didn't use it by the time I was an adult - as pp says it's rather hierarchical. I think a grandparent role is different as they are 2 generations above you and you don't tend you use the actual name, it's just Granny, Granddad etc.

I had several great aunts when I was younger and I was expected to use 'Aunt Margot' etc - but they were quite old fashioned and formal, and this was me 18 and her 80 odd.

It's fine if Auntie is your preference but these things happen naturally and I don't think you can enforce it. It's ridiculous to call your nephew cheeky.

BeingATwatItsABingThing · Today 08:01
"As long as the name is intentionally disrespectful, surely it’s fine."

Yes, always make sure you are intentionally disrespectful! 😉

YANBU to tell them, lightheartedly, you are fond of/miss your auntie tag and hope they use it.

YABU to tell adults Emma is not your name and insist on Auntie.

I come from a large working class London family and none of us have ever used the prefix for our aunts and uncles. We've only ever used their names.

DH & I decided we didn't want to be called Uncle & Aunt. We explained this as soon as they were born, ( to the parents, not the babies 😀). When they were old enough to understand we explained that they could use Uncle & Aunt if they really wanted to & in return we would address them as Nephew.
They both stuck with using just our names.
I certainly would not consider any adult who dropped the use of Aunt to be cheeky. If that's where you set the bar for cheek or disrespect, I feel you setting it very low & must often feel slighted.
So my view would be lighten up, life's too short to stress about such trivia.

I only use Aunty and Uncle for my older aunt and uncle. The younger one I just call first names. So could be taken as a compliment!

Do you insist on pronouns as well!

I'm in my 30s and generally still use auntie/uncle before their names but if I didn't they certainly wouldn't scold me for it! None of my nieces or nephews ever called me auntie, just my first name.

I just had a good think about this. Even if the house was on fire I would be shouting “Aunty Emma!” No way would I just say Emma, it would be so weird.

I wouldn’t call parents or grandparents by first names either.

I have never called or been called "aunty". I have 2 aunts that I jokingly/affectionately refer to as "Aunty Maura" and "Aunty Mary" but if I'm talking to them I'll call them Maura or Mary.

You're being ridiculous. Your name is Emma, not Aunty Emma!

So do we!! I wouldn’t dream of calling my aunt by her first name only. My DSs refer to my DB and DSIL as uncle x and aunty y.

'If he must insist on calling me by my Christian name, why does he not say Cousin Violet instead of just Violet. It makes me sound like a scullery maid. (c) Gosford Park. You are absolutely right, it is rude to call people who are older than you by their first name. Obnoxious. I nipped it in the bud with my dc when they brought their friends home and they launched into the first-name territory with me. I did not say 'why are you calling me...'. I just said 'Address me as Mrs ....'.

I’m baffled by the responses on this thread. I am in my thirties and still call my aunties in their fifties “aunt Emma” etc. Why wouldn’t you?

Do you also call grandparents by their first names once you are an adult? If not, why not? How is it different?

As for it being a class signifier, I am very posh ☺️

I'm 39 and i can't imagine not calling my aunties/uncles first name only!

Those titles are signs of love & respect. No need to drop them.

Also describing your 28 year old nephew as "my cheeky nephew" is deeply infantilising. It sounds like the way I'd talk about my friend's cute, excitable three year old.

My late parents were from the Caribbean, and they always used the term Auntie and Uncle, even when my DM was 70, she called her late dad's sister Auntie X. However , having said that, her siblings always just write from 'Paul ' and 'Mary' on their greeting cards to me, so I guess they don't mind . (I am in my 50's) I was a bit shocked when my own nephews dropped the Auntie title for me when they were still at primary school, as I would never have dreamt of doing that. Do people also call their Grandparents just 'Dave' and 'Sue', or their parents 'Mike' and 'Brenda' once they are adults?

When I grew up you always called Aunt and Uncles by that term. We even called friends of the family Aunt and uncle, even through they were not relations.

However, even though that was only in the 80/90s …it’s very different now. My nieces and nephews call me Twistybranch and my kids call their aunts n uncles by their first name. They still use Gran and Grandad though.

Unless you've changed it by deed poll, which would be very weird, your name is not Aunty Emma. It's Emma.

Very, very weird for an adult to insist on being called Auntie Name by another adult in my opinion. I'd say "it's my auntie's birthday" or "I'm going to see my uncle" in conversation to describe the person but I haven't called them Auntie/Uncle Name to their face since I was about 12.

My nieces stopped using Aunty to address me at some point in their early 20s. My 8 year old niece sometimes uses Aunty and sometimes doesn't. It doesn't bother me either way.

I call most of my Aunts and Uncles by their first name and have done since I was in my 20s but I do have one favourite Aunt who I still call Aunty.

I wouldn't expect adult nieces or nephews to use aunty. I was aunty to godchildren when they were little but it's just first name now.

However, I can't imagine not saying aunty or uncle and I just always have. I like it.

I have no idea if that's their preference or not.