What do people call their grandparents? Sure, there’s Grandma and Grampa, but there’s also Gammy, Bumpy, Dadoo, Gre-Gre, Kiki, Kerkel, Monga, Nee-Nee, Pots, Rah-Rah and Woo-Woo. Martha and Grant talk about the endlessly inventive names grandchildren call their grandparents. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Inventive Names for Grandparents”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Recently, the newspaper in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, invited its readers to share the unusual names that the kids and their families give to their grandparents.
Well, the response was so overwhelming that the newspaper published a whole grandparents’ glossary with dozens and dozens of these names.
And Grant, it’s astounding how many different names we give to grandparents.
You know, there were the predictable ones like Grammy and Gaga.
But then the list went on and on with all these made-up names that were funny but also really endearing.
Yeah, because a lot of the names were coined by the children.
They misspoke.
It said something funny.
Then everyone thought they were talking about the grandparents or maybe they were.
And it became the grandparents’ name, right?
Right.
One of my favorites was Dadu.
This little boy whose grandmother used to read a lot to him was so captivated by her rendition of a rooster crowing cock-a-doodle-doo that he started calling his grandmother Dadu, which I just love.
And the name stuck, and her family wrote to the newspaper that she was still his Dadu when she passed away last year at 91.
Oh, that’s sweet.
I was also interested to see, it seemed as if some grandparents are called different things by their different grandkids.
It’s not always the same for all of their grandkids, right?
Right.
Reading this story made me wistful.
I was kind of wishing that I’d come up with some of these clever names like Bumpy and Knock Knock.
Bumpy and Knock Knock.
How about that?
Those are nice.
Yeah.
Those are very nice.
Yeah, actually, Knock Knock was a name that this kid gave to his babysitter because they used to go knock on the babysitter’s door when he was being dropped off.
I love that.
Yeah, the associations there are strong, right, between those important figures in their lives and something they enjoy doing.
Yeah.
Let’s go see Knock Knock.
Well, we’d love to hear your crazy names for grandfathers and grandmothers or other members of the family that, for some reason, they’re called something out of the ordinary.
Not aunt and uncle, not grandma and grandpa, but maybe Be-Bah and Boo-Boo.
You can call us at 1-877-929-9673.
That’s 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D.
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You can call us B-B-B-B-B-B-B-2, for that matter.
