Grandmas are lovingly known as “gogo” or “ugogo” in the Zulu dialect. Gogo groups, dedicated to helping children, can be found all over the country. Grandpas of the Zulu tribe are called “umkhulu.”
I took that idea and ran with it—as you all know, I am Gigi! I love that it is a reflection of my French heritage. I find this such a fun and interesting topic and so many people have great stories about how they got their grandparent names.
In Britain, Ireland, United States, Australia, New Zealand and, particularly prevalent in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Nan, Nana, Nanna, Nanny, Gran and Granny and other variations are often used for grandmother in both writing and speech.
Another popular subset of unique names are those that are derived from the (most often) grandmother's first name. So Gabby McCree is Gigi. “It's an abbreviation for 'Grandma Gabby' and also my initials growing up,” she says.
Scandinavian Words for Grandmother
In Swedish, mormor means, “mother's mother,” and farmor means, “father's mother.” It's the same in Danish, but they have another word for just “grandmother,” which is bedstemor.
In the Swedish language, the maternal grandparents are “mormor” for grandmother and “morfar” for grandfather. Paternal grandparents are “farmor” for grandmother, and “farfar,” for grandfather.
Germany: Oma is one of the most popular international names for grandmothers and is often used to address grandmothers with no German heritage. Greece: Maybe because it just sounds joyful, the Greek YaYa is a popular grandmother nickname. It's sometimes hyphenated and sometimes rendered as YiaYia.
Ireland (Gaelic)
While maimeó anddaideó are the words used to address a grandmother or grandfather, there are a few different words for grandparents in Irish. For example, there are máthair chríona, which translates to “wise mother,” and athair críonna which translates to “wise father.”
grandmother: oma; grootmoeder; opoe; grootje.
Few people know that the Irish or Gaelic word for grandmother is seanmháthair ((shan a WAW her), literally meaning "old mother." Alternate spellings include seanmhair, seanmathair and sean mathair.
Dembart – Grandmother
Maam bart/maaman/naan – Father.
Description. When parents die of AIDS, the orphans often go to live with a "gogo," the Zulu word for grandmother.
For British grandmothers the top five names in order of popularity at a national level are Nan (33%), Grandma (32%), Nana (24%), Nanny (22%) and Granny (14%). Only one-in-ten use the term Gran. The name Nan is by far the most popular for a grandmother in the English seaside cities of Liverpool (65%) and Brighton (51%).
Gigi. This grandmother nickname doubles as a real-life moniker – think of American model Gigi Hadid. The two-syllable name, pronounced "gee-gee," is also fun for little kids to say.
You can call her by cute names such as Big mom, Peaches, Lolly, or go for hippie names Hopie or Mumssy. Fairy mother, Granny Pie, or Yo Grandma can be other fun ways to address your sweet and caring grandma. Nicknames, whether traditional or unusual, are often remembered for years.
-Scottish: In Scottish Gaelic, the word for grandma is “Seanmhair,” which means good mother. But other commonly used Scottish grandmother names include “Nana,” “Nanna,” “Mhamó” and “Mamó.” -Spanish: In Spanish, grandmothers are known as “Abuela” or “Abuelita.”
Grampa… I used to call both of mine gran.. and I only knew one granda and that's what he was called.. In Scotland, grandparents are often called "Granny" or "Grandpa" (sometimes spelled as "Grannie" or "Grandad" respectively), which are similar to the terms used in other English-speaking countries.
The most common translations in dictionaries for grandparents are the literal translations of 'grandmother' and 'grandfather'. In French, these terms are, respectively: grand-mère and grand-père, or grand-maman and grand-papa. These terms are also commonly used in speech and writing.
These include nanna (Calabria), granda (Piemonte), nona (Veneto and Emilia-Romagna), ajaja (Sardegna) and ava (Sicilia). In America and Canada, many second and third generation Italians refer to their grandma as nona pronounced with a long 'o' sound. The word nonnina is the diminutive form of nonna.
We already covered how to say “grandma” (nonna) in a previous article, so now it's time to talk about the other half of the grandparent team! The most common way to say grandpa or grandfather in Italian is nonno (plural: nonni which can mean either grandpas or grandparents).
Grandma: Nani (maternal), Nana (paternal) Grandpa: Dadi (maternal), Dada (paternal) "In our Indian culture, 'nani' is maternal grandmother, and 'dadi' is maternal grandfather.
Sitti means Grandmother in Lebanese - Picture of Sitti, Raleigh.