What do children call their grandparents?

[Dalooah]

What do your children call your parents/partners parents? Why?

I don't understand why people call their grandmas 'nanny'? Is it something cultural I don't understand?

We've got specific and different words for each maternal grandparent and paternal grandparent that is derived from the language of the culture.

But as far as I know, this doesn't exist in the English language? Can someone explain and/or share the different things kids call their grandprents?

DS2 has Grammy and Grampa (m not n), as that's what he started calling them when tiny.

DS1 had Little Granny (his father's mother) and Big Granny (my mother- she wasn't big, just bigger than Little Granny!).

My Dad was Grandad to both boys.

But we called our grandparents Nanny and Grandad on both sides.

Both are called Nanny and Grandad, when i talk about them i specify which one by their name but they just call them nanny and grandad. On their dads side his mum had already been called Nanny. For my mum we discussed and felt Grandma felt too 'old' so she became Nanny and can be shortened to nan when they are older.

'Nanny' or 'Nana' is working-class or lower-middle-class granny is middle-middle-class or above. (A weird new term has also emerged, according to a newspaper article I remember the 'granny nanny', ie a grandmother who provides extensive childcare for her grandchildren.)

(I've said this before on here but I was once teaching a novel set in an English country house c. WWI which featured a huge feud between the romantic/sentimental governess and the hardboiled elderly nanny who looked after the younger children and resented her loss of power when they graduated to the governess. One of my students gave an entire presentation on how badly the English upper classes treated their mothers, because she assumed that the 'nanny' was actually the UC children's grandmother, despite the fact that she spoke Cockney English, ate in the servants' hall and slept in a tiny attic room. )

My son called all four of his grandparents by abbreviations of their first names from the start, despite a lot of jockeying among them as to what they were going to be called.

Nani and granny, both grandfathers are 'grandad'. All chosen by the grandparents themselves on first becoming grandparents.

They call their great grandparents gramps, nana pat and granddad and nana Smith. Because that's what DH and I call them - I have no idea why I call my grandparents what I do (nana firstname for one, nana surname for the other).

3 different countries with 3 different languages so each grandparent has their own name

But the english part is GranGran and Nanny (DHs grandmother). DH used to call her Nan/nanny

I’m Mama and Dh is Dada although she is getting older so that might change to Grandad but I still want Mama. By the way she named us, she started talking very early but couldn’t say Grandma.

One set is Nanna and Grandad the other set is called Grandma and Grandpa.

DS calls my mum Grandma and calls my stepdad by his first name.

For me it was Gran/Grandad and Nana /Grandad

For my kids it was
Granny/Grandad for my parents
Farmor as DH has Danish heritage so each grandparent has a specific name Farmor/Farfar (literally father's mother/father's father and Mormor/Morfar or Mother's mother/mother's father

@Dalooah

Poor little cockney nanny being treated so badly by her U-C son.

One is gran and one is nanny, and grandad.
My mum decided she wanted to be nanny, no idea why. I am not keen myself. My own grandmothers were both known as Nana Surname.

Sorry that should have been to @ParsleyDill

Mine have grandma and grandad (surname) and grandma and grandad (item specific to their location) plus a great grandma, two great grandads and a great nanny. Both of our mums wanted to be grandma, and I had two grandmas (and two grandads) as a child and don’t recall any great confusion over it

I called my paternal grandmother 'jug'. No idea why :-) She hated it but it stuck her whole life.

I agree with a pp that Nan (and Nanny) tend to be more working class but don't particularly agree Nana is. Granny is used extensively in Scotland so not sure it fits into the class system there.

When I was little I had two ‘Nanny’s, and they were neatly divided as Nanny in Devon and Nanny in Heaven

@FlumpyPoodle

*@Dalooah*

Poor little cockney nanny being treated so badly by her U-C son.

I know! The student was quite outraged at the mistreatment of Cockney Nanny! And as this was a presentation in a seminar, I could see all the other students starting to glance at one another uncomfortably as she got stuck into her analysis of upper-class ageism and making your elderly mother eat with the servants and look after your babies in the attic 24/7.

Fortunately, she saw the funny side.

Ex-MIL - Grandma
Ex-FIL - Grandad (firstname)
GMIL - Granny
My Dad - Grandad (firstname)
My Mum - Nanny

We called my mums parents nanny so it just carried through.

*Ex-GMIL that should be

Granny and Grandad.

I had 2 Nanas growing up. (And a Grandad and a Grandpa X)

Grandmas and Grandmothers were what the posher kids had is how it seemed to me growing up. I still feel a bit of a fraud talking to DD about her 'Grandma' which is what MIL has chosen to be called.

DH had a Grandma and Pops, and a Nana and Grandad

DD only has Grandma and Grandad - my husband's parents, as my parents have died. I talk to her about my mum and refer to her as Nana.

Disclaimer is that DD isn't 1 yet so who knows what she'll use as she starts to talk.

I have grandchildren - they call me Grandma S, and my husband is Grandad R. They do have other grandparents ,and they are also called Grandma and Grandad and their christian name. There was never any suggestion that different ones would have different titles - we're all grandparents so we are all Grandma and Grandad.

I’m surprised to hear of so many using Nanny/Nan on MN. I thought it was viewed along the same lines as ‘toilet’ and ‘pardon’

My mum/MIL are Nanny/Nannie.

Mine have a nanny and grandpa, and a grandma. I had nanny first name and grandpa first name, so Nan Pat and grandpa James. I find it odd calling them nanny Jones as that to me is a mix of formal and informal. But each to their own!

DD has a Nanny, Grandma and Grandad.

Both my grandmother's died before I was born but I had a Grandad and a Grandpa.

Agree with pp Nanny is probably far too common for some MN users 😆