Elizabeth in Burlington, Texas, says she always referred directly to her grandparents using their last names, as in Grandma and Grandpa Bell, or Grandma and Grandpa Van Hoose, but her husband calls his own grandparents Nanaw and Pawpaw. The Dictionary of American Regional English lists at least 100 different names for grandmothers, including Big Mama, Mamaw, Gram, Nana, Grammy, and at least that many names for grandfathers. This is part of a complete episode.
Leave a comment
1 comment
More from this show
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
My sisters and I called my dad’s mom Mamagram (“mummagram”). I think this was because we called our mom Mama (“mumma). Our cousins did not use this term. I’m wondering if anyone else uses this, or if it was my oldest sister’s invention? My dad’s dad was regular old Grandpa (with last name if trying to be clear which grandpa we were referring to).
We called my mom’s dad Grandpa Charboneau. This format may have started out of respect in the older generations (?), but by the time we came around, it didn’t feel formal at all. It was just his name to us.
We’re from Michigan.