To wish people wouldn't use the word "nana"

[IDoughnutKnow]

Unless you are a toddler and are talking about bananas.

People never used it back in the good old days of MN.

I think granny is hideous. I wish people wouldn't say that.

It should be Grandma.

My way is the right way and should be the only way.

The end.

I had a Grandma and a Nana. It allowed three-year-old me to distinguish between them in conversations like “shall we go to Granma’s house?”
My DC also had a Grandma and a Nanny, for the same reason and because all of them were asked how they would like to be known to the children.
Casting aspersions on it because it is childish is the most ridiculous reason for wishing people didn’t use it, since it is a diminution used primarily FOR CHILDREN and then as the children grow up, as a familiar name for them.
So yes, YABVU!

You can wish all you like , not happening . I’m a nana and I LOVE it ! Much better than granny !!

In the 1970s I called my great grandmother Nana, because that’s what my mother called her and had done since the 1940s. How long do you think Mumsnet has been going?

Oh my incredibly posh grandmother was nana. Do you mean “my nan”? I’m a crashing snob and nana isn’t on my list.

Would a trangender nanny or Grandma be a Tanny or a Tandy perhaps? Just another layer.

Actually, in my Irish accent, Nana for grandmother and nana short for banana are pronounced in exactly the same way. Not in a jokey way or anything, that's just the way the words are pronounced here.

Clearly in some dialects Nana is the usual word for grandmother, so I think you ABVVVU to declare against it. It's like how the words "duck", "chuck" and "hen" are used in specific parts of the UK to show affection where others use words like "love" and "pet". Is there a specific group of people that you dislike, OP? If so, just say so.

I was thinking the same. There's a very subtle difference for me, but it's more about emphasis. The vowel sounds are the same.

My DC are from a different part of Ireland to me (and a different side of the border) and it's the same for them as well.

What is holy heck is an "ITV family"?

I love the word Nana and am proud of it. Those who don't like it are probably the ones who always need to "speak to the manager" because they cannot handle much in their lives.

That was really interesting.

It does seem to be more popular than it was a decade ago in the US. Other words for "grandmother" around here seem to be along the lines of Mimi, Gran, Memaw, Nana and of course, grandma. A term I am hearing more often than I used to is Gigi for great-grandmother.

There are also different words that are used for grandfather, besides grandpa. Pawpaw, Papaw, Papa, Pa are all used.
Those are just the ones I hear more often but there are many terms used in the states depending on the culture/nationality.
I think all the terms stand for love.

Whereas the name 'granny' really sets my teeth on edge, so - shock, horror - it seems this is purely a matter of personal taste and what people call their relatives is nobody else's business.

Both my grandmothers were known as Nanny or Nan, and I'm 47. My parents, born in the 1940s, also called their grandmothers Nan, and so did my grandparents, born in the 1910s. Italians often call their grandmothers 'Nonna' and a lot of Welsh speakers in North Wales say 'Nain' so I would imagine that 'Nana/Nan/Nanny' comes from the same linguistic roots and is not a new invention.

My sons found the different surnames confusing, so we used places as reference e.g. 'Grandma in X village and Grandma in Y town'.

We had both! Gran Surname and Gran at Place name. I have no idea why.

@Nanaof1

@GCSister
Honestly there's are some ridiculous comments on this thread.
ITV families 🙄

What is holy heck is an "ITV family"?

When I was a child there was snobbery about (the only three!) TV channels and naice people only watched BBC. or that's what they said anyway.

I'm off for a 'Nana nap'.......

My mum wanted to be called nana because she thought granny/grandma sounded old

My granddaughter calls me Nana. I much prefer it to 'Nan' or 'Nanny'.

🤣 at the class nonsense.
I'm not even British, so have no British class, and as I said upthread, I'm nan to the older ones and nana to the younger. The older ones shortened it to nan themselves as they got older.
Although earlier on today one of the younger ones called me Granny Grump to the other one because I told him off.
Which made me laugh.

It’s not a British thing, it’s an English thing. If MN was mostly people from Wales if those from the North and South had a chat - ‘I call my grandmother Nain, I call mine Mam-gu’ literally the other wouldn’t even think twice. But English people? They’d start another civil war over gran/Nan/grandmama/Father Christmas/Santa/Grass/Vase/Scone and god knows what else. It’s bizarre how far some take linguistics as a form social superiority.

An “ITV family” is one where the children watch delinquent CITV, instead of lovely educational CBeebies.

Count Duckula or Blue Peter, basically 🤣

Is this a deliberate wind-up post?
Nanna is very common in Wales.

Where are you from @IDoughnutKnow? I think it’s a regional thing as I hadn’t heard it much until I moved to the north.

I know people from the East Midlands who pronounce it ‘Na-nar’

I’m from the North East originally ( now down South) and I had 2 Nanas, not grandmas. However my kids call theirs grandma!! Personally I’d prefer to be called Nana if I get grandchildren! Each to their own. Don’t know why you have a problem with it.

We had Nanna's they were my Nan's and grandad's mum's. We were a 5 generation family until Covid hit and we lost Nanna H. It was our way of differentiating between which adult we were talking about. It was lovely. When we were little we also called Nan Nanny. I preferred it that way to what we have now. We have Nan J (my mum), Nan P (my nan), Nan E (my husband's mum's mum), Nan M (my husband's mum) and Nan C (my husband's dad's mum). Lost my dads mum at the beginning of the year but she would have been Nan L it all gets rather confusing talking about Nan's to the children

@IDoughnutKnow As a proud Mancunian married to a thankfully unpretentious Londoner YABU and can fuck off with your classism and regional ignorance. Loads of people have Nanas, which is not the same word as Narnas or the Scottish variant with a short a for bananas.