Aunty's and Uncle's

[EarlofShrewsbury]

Another thread got me wondering.

When I was younger my parents siblings and my grandparents siblings were always called aunty or uncle. As in I addressed them as Aunty Susan or Uncle Barry or whatever.

I also had a cousin who was only a couple of years younger than my Dad (Dad was youngest of 9 so his sisters were a lot older). I always addressed him as Cousin Darren, I still do even though I'm nearly 40. I still call everyone aunty and uncle too.

My kids call my brother Uncle Aiden and his girlfriend Aunty Megan but they call their Dads siblings just by their first names.

Is it a dying trend? I assume it's a respect to elders thing but it's so ingrained into me I can't stop.

Do you still use Aunty and Uncle as an adult? Do your kids use it?

*all names changed to protect the innocent 🙂

I still call my Aunties and Uncles "Auntie Sue" "Uncle Bob" etc.
My DC do the same. So do my nieces and nephews.

We are pretty much the only people I know who do though.

My kids are grown up now, but it's been dying out for a while. I used to call the neighbours Aunty Susan and Uncle Barry ironically.

Yes, but I am from a black & pakistani family - rv

-Everyone is an aunty/uncle!*

I never called aunts or uncles anything other than by first name and I'm 57 so it's obviously been dying out for a while. Friends as a child were a mix - some used aunt/uncle, some didn't.

My kids use first names for their aunts and uncles too, although the wife of one of my bils does refer to us to her kids as aunty ochon or uncle x. That said, her kids call us by first name.

I have an uncle "Phil" but me and my sibling refer to him just a
s Phil and it would actually feel odd to call him.uncle! Even though he's my mum's brother. OTOH my dad's brother we do call Uncle Neil! Uncle Neil is older than my dad, Tony is 10 years younger than my mum, maybe that's why? Because Phil was a.lot.younger than most adults when we were growing up 🤷‍♀️

I called all my older generation aunts/uncles/cousins/parent's friends Aunt and Uncle. My dh didn't - called them all by first names and he used to get quite confused that my Aunty Mary was actually my first cousin once removed Mary.

My kids call everyone by their first name.

My nieces call me Aunty name. I love it and I'm pleased that they do. I expect when they're older they might drop the Aunty part.

My dc refer to mine and their dads siblings as Aunty/Uncle +name, with the exception of one of my brothers, who they only refer to as Uncle!

They also call close friends of ours Aunty/Uncle Name. We’re from a black Caribbean family so it is very common and thought of as being respectful.

I call my aunties and uncles auntie x and uncle y still. So does my DH for his.
I'm also auntie bluesky to my nephews.
My kids call all their aunties and uncles auntie x and uncle y (including some who are just our friends, which we never did as kids!)
So we are bucking the trend by not only carrying on, but extending the auntie/uncle title even further!

Yes Aunty and uncle here for me and my kids growing up. We're a mixed Asian/ Middle Eastern family so dropping Aunty or uncle would be scandalous!

I had a similar conundrum recently: mums brothers ex wife, divorced likely about 15 years ago. She was my auntie all the way through childhood and beyond. Now that I’m an adult his partners aren’t aunties but I concluded that she is still and address her as auntie x, and also my nieces (from the paternal side) call me auntie chapters. My family are all up north so perhaps this has some bearing

Kids in our family all use Auntie x and Uncle. Adults tend to just use first names when talking to someone, but will say Aunt X or Uncle Y when talking about them.

I don’t think the names themselves are a sign of respect particularly. Some of DH’s family insist on giving people their place by names. So everyone is Aunty, Uncle, Great Aunty and the likes, but that’s as far as it goes.
Kids on that side may say “Great Aunty Susan”, but they wouldn’t give up their seat or the likes. Mine might call her “Susan” but they wouldn’t dream of not offering her their seat and taking the floor for an elder relative.

In our extended family, the Auntie and Uncle prefixes are dropped when children reach adulthood. I'm Drama to all my nieces and nephews now, Auntie Drama is long gone.

I’m 31 and still say Auntie name and uncle name. It’s so ingrained that it would be weird not to say it

My great aunts were auntie Annie, Gertie, Martha etc on my mother's father's side. But on my mother's mother's side was just their name. My father's sisters were Auntie but my mother's brother and sister, and husband, were just their names. Except my mother's bil didn't get his name but his RAF nickname as my aunt met him during the War in Berlin.

I'm 66.

Otoh xh's nieces and nephews all called him Uncle even when he was 14, but I was never called Aunt. Obviously I wasn't part of the family.

We call both set of my parents' siblings Auntie and Uncle in Northern Ireland and south-west England...Auntie and Uncle.

Literally because it's correct.

My sister's husband is also Uncle to mine and vice versa.

Mind you, I have a cousin who we just give the title of Uncle to for some reason.

My aunties and uncles were and still are called auntie. Our dc call our siblings auntie/uncle too.
mite not something that’s dying out in my circle certainly. All my friends and colleagues dc refer to aunties and uncles too.

I called mine auntie and uncle but my kids don’t really, I don’t really know why! They don’t see them as often as I saw mine when young.

I call one auntie 'auntie x' despite her telling me it's fine if I want to call her her first name now I'm an adult. Can't get used to that, she's auntie x in my mind.

My other auntie has various nicknames and I call her one of them, or auntie y.

My DS calls my sister and her husband auntie and uncle, but DH's sister doesn't want to be auntie. I also have a few very close friends who are like family and are known as auntie or uncle.

I have seen it more commonly used by adults in the North of the UK than the South.

I can my parent's siblings and their spouses Aunty and Uncle, and I'll raise my children to do the same with my siblings and siblings in law. I don't call my cousins Cousin X though, just use their first names.

Always Aunty and uncle here and same for my children. The only exceptions are my dad's siblings who were quite young when I was born and didn't want to be called aunts and uncles so they never were. But that aside it's definitely not dying out in my family.

Yes, but that is traditional in the southern United States. Relatives are Aunt, Uncle, or Cousin. "Cousin" covers anyone from First cousin to fifth cousin twice removed.

British born but of indian heritage here and i still use Aunty and Uncle, as do my kids in turn. It would be considered rude not too.
Even my kid's school friends who are of similar ethnic backgrounds refer to me as aunt, likewise my kids to to their friends parents. It's just a respect thing thats been handed down.