Do you hate your kids' grandparent names (like granny, etc...)?

[Anonymous]

If you want to talk pretentious, my FIL insisted that the grandkids call him “grandfather.” So that’s what we do. And MIL is grandmother, to go along with it.

[Anonymous]

Yup. My mom insisted on our kids calling her Grammy and Grandpy. I have no idea where she got this from as we never referred to her parents that way. I’m not sure why, but it has always annoyed the cr*p out of me. Now that my kids are older I refuse to use those terms and insist on just Grandma and Grandpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIL literally took 3 years to settle on a name, having us call her everything from Granny to Nana to Nanny to Grandmom to Gran to Gmom. Finally I told her if she wanted us to call her anything besides “Judy,” she better settle on something. I didn’t care what she wanted to be called, just calm the eff down and choose something.

I knew she was putting on a show because my mom (who already had grandkids) was already “Grandma.” We never said she couldn’t also be Grandma, we just made it clear that was definitely also going to be what my mom was. MIL is obnoxious and attention-seeking in many ways, so I was not surprised by these antics, but it really did go on for years.

I grew up with two grandmas, Grandma [name1] and Grandma [name2]. It's odd to me that people think you need a unique name for each grandparent. It's not that hard to distinguish them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want to talk pretentious, my FIL insisted that the grandkids call him “grandfather.” So that’s what we do. And MIL is grandmother, to go along with it.

That’s what we called my father’s parents, and that’s what my dad goes by. (My mom goes by “Grandma”). They are all humble people from Indiana, so I don’t know why this is “pretentious.” I like that my dad chose something a little old-fashioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My MIL goes by Nana and it grates on me, I just hate it, it's so pretentious. That is all, just a vent. Why couldn't she pick a normal name like grandma?

It should not be an issue. In DH's family, apparently the oldest grandchild named the grandparents, THEN that child's parent's took offense that the other grandchildren used that name, too.

And so it goes.

In my family (and every family I know), the oldest grandchild names the grandparents, and the rest of the grandchildren follow. No one looks for or finds offense.

That happened with my kids-now adults-for my parents. MIL's was successfull adjusted because it came out as buga so for MIL+FIL used what the huge volume of older cousins used. Nana is easy since it's an N instead of M-momma. I had one. My 1st to have a child adult DC+spouse have decided on names for all GP's. No input from any of us. I'm dealing with mine but DH doesn't like his. Tough as far as I' concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup. My mom insisted on our kids calling her Grammy and Grandpy. I have no idea where she got this from as we never referred to her parents that way. I’m not sure why, but it has always annoyed the cr*p out of me. Now that my kids are older I refuse to use those terms and insist on just Grandma and Grandpa.

Wow. I think it’s crazy to call people names other than what they want to be called. What’s it to you?

[Anonymous]

We had a conversation about it with FIL's wife and she suggested Grammie for herself but my grandmother was still alive for that time and that was her name. Of course, step-MIL was drunk when we had the conversation so she referred to herself that way but the kids just followed our lead and called her by her first name (she married FIL less than a year before DH and I got married). She was horrible and mean to FIL and the kids and got meaner and now she's dead so it all worked out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MIL literally took 3 years to settle on a name, having us call her everything from Granny to Nana to Nanny to Grandmom to Gran to Gmom. Finally I told her if she wanted us to call her anything besides “Judy,” she better settle on something. I didn’t care what she wanted to be called, just calm the eff down and choose something.

I knew she was putting on a show because my mom (who already had grandkids) was already “Grandma.” We never said she couldn’t also be Grandma, we just made it clear that was definitely also going to be what my mom was. MIL is obnoxious and attention-seeking in many ways, so I was not surprised by these antics, but it really did go on for years.

I grew up with two grandmas, Grandma [name1] and Grandma [name2]. It's odd to me that people think you need a unique name for each grandparent. It's not that hard to distinguish them.

OK? Please read the bolded, where I clearly said that would be fine if that is what MIL wanted. She didn’t want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nana is pretentious!? I do not get this.

Me, neither. My mom is Nana because that’s what the youngest grandchild, who couldn’t say Grandma, started calling her. It stuck with the four that followed. There was nothing pretentious about a toddler with speech issues!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a conversation about it with FIL's wife and she suggested Grammie for herself but my grandmother was still alive for that time and that was her name. Of course, step-MIL was drunk when we had the conversation so she referred to herself that way but the kids just followed our lead and called her by her first name (she married FIL less than a year before DH and I got married). She was horrible and mean to FIL and the kids and got meaner and now she's dead so it all worked out.

Why can’t you have more than one grammie?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a conversation about it with FIL's wife and she suggested Grammie for herself but my grandmother was still alive for that time and that was her name. Of course, step-MIL was drunk when we had the conversation so she referred to herself that way but the kids just followed our lead and called her by her first name (she married FIL less than a year before DH and I got married). She was horrible and mean to FIL and the kids and got meaner and now she's dead so it all worked out.

Why can’t you have more than one grammie?

Because they didn’t want to do that? Why didn’t you name both of your kids Alice? You could have.

[Anonymous]

When I was growing up in England "Nan" was a very working class choice for grandmother. My MIL insists our kids call her "Nan" and I cringe every time. I am not proud of this, it is probably one of the very last vestiges of classism that I react to, but it was so ingrained at an early age I am having trouble shaking it off. I also don't like HER so that doesn't help.

[Anonymous]

My mother goes by Grammy LastName, which i find bizarre. she’s the type to be like “oh don’t worry about little old me” while holding a grudge from here until forever bc my kids have more than one grandparent - heaven forbid.

My MIL goes by GiGi, which is annoying because it knocked out one of the names we were eyeballing for our second kid since we would’ve used Gigi as a nickname.

[Anonymous]

Nana is pretentious? I'd call it cultural.

My mom and MIL are both called Nana.

I grew up with both grandmother's being called Nana.

My mom grew up with both grandmother's being called Nana.

My grandmother's only living grandmother was, you guessed it, Nana.


In my family, Nana is what we call all grandmothers. It isn't pretentiois; it is part of our culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nana is pretentious!? I do not get this.

Me, neither. My mom is Nana because that’s what the youngest grandchild, who couldn’t say Grandma, started calling her. It stuck with the four that followed. There was nothing pretentious about a toddler with speech issues!

I 46 and had a Nana. Won’t list the others as they’re pretty specific. My kids call my dad an absurd name based on the eldest’s inability to say what my dad started with, but they’re now 20 and 16 and it’s just his name to them.


My MIL wanted to be called the same thing she called her grandmother and what my H called his grandmother. Nope, the kids went their own way. And yes our kids are the only ones on both sides.