Why do you use "papa" instead of "daddy" or "dad"?

[Anonymous]

I have twins. I have always used Daddy, but when he was about 5, one twin started calling me Papa; not all the time, but most of the time. The other still calls me Daddy. It was his choice. I'm fine with either. But since I am Chinese, Papa is a lot closer to what I called my father growing up (Ba-ba).

[Anonymous]

Also among millennials/Gen Z “daddy” is weirdly sexualized.

[Anonymous]

Lots of kids in this area have Spanish speaking caretakers as babies, so they learn papa from them. We’re non-native Spanish speakers and my daughter has spoken Spanish fluently since she learned to talk, and has a lot of Spanish words and phrasing still in her speech as a kindergartner.

[Anonymous]

Papa is German for Daddy. They call him both, depending on the language they are speaking in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I consciously chose mama instead of mom or mommy because I had a rough childhood and wanted a name that wouldn’t make me think of my own mother. My DH chose papa because it went with mama. It’s also reeeeeeaaally cute when our DD says “Papa!” More so than daddy or dad, IMO.

A damaged hipster, how “unique”

[Anonymous]

Why does anyone care? My younger sister called me some random syllables that sound nothing like my name for years.

[Anonymous]

Dad, daddy, Daaaaaad For DH
Mom, ma, mama, mummy, mumma. For me.

Both DH and I call our parents Mummy and Papa.

[Anonymous]

Mother, mater, Amma, Ammi, ma, matashree, maata, maateh, mataari, maiyya. Mom, mummy, mama..
...I call my mother whatever I am in mood for and she responds.😘

[Anonymous]

DH said he wanted to be called O Exalted One. And so he was.

[Anonymous]

My country was a former French colony, so we got French influence including the term "papa"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Papa is German for Daddy. They call him both, depending on the language they are speaking in.

3-year-old zombie thread. Also, Vati is German for Daddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Papa is German for Daddy. They call him both, depending on the language they are speaking in.

3-year-old zombie thread. Also, Vati is German for Daddy.

You’re right that this is a zombie thread but wrong that papa isn’t German. Just like in English (!!), there’s more than one familiar term of endearment for father in German. My German husband never called his dad Vati in his life.

The whole premise of this thread is bizarre. Papa is a normal word and “matches” mama, which is also a normal and even more common word.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Papa is German for Daddy. They call him both, depending on the language they are speaking in.

3-year-old zombie thread. Also, Vati is German for Daddy.

You’re right that this is a zombie thread but wrong that papa isn’t German. Just like in English (!!), there’s more than one familiar term of endearment for father in German. My German husband never called his dad Vati in his life.

The whole premise of this thread is bizarre. Papa is a normal word and “matches” mama, which is also a normal and even more common word.

Well, riding a horse into town was normal too, in the 1870s. But if you did it today, it would be intentionally retro. Like, these people insisting on papa and mama.

The people using papa that annoy us are not those of other cultures, living in the US. it’s the hipsters who grew up in suburbia and want to be “special” who annoy us, or who have fetishized “daddy” to the point where they can’t even have their own kids refer to them with the word.

For better or worse, both mama and papa have been appropriated by REALLY annoying sunsets of our culture - shared equally between hipsters and those people who buy tee shirts off of zulily with cursive “cutsie” sayings on them - “papa bear” or “boy mama” - likewise with the “mama” jewelry.

[Anonymous]

We’re still using dada at 6. 😬

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s really funny to me is (i grew up in italia) that Papa means Pope in italian... and papà is dad in Italian... so when i hear Americans use papa for dad... it literally drives me nuts .. just use DAD or DADDY.. if you really want to use another word then use it correctly...

Papa = Pope
Papà = Dad

Except outside of Italian, papa can mean dad. I don’t know why you are assuming people are using the Italian word? It’s an extremely common name around the world.

If I met people who weren’t Italian using papá, I would find it pretentious. But papa is much more common.

It's the same in Spanish (& Portuguese), too - papa' is dad; el papa is the pope, though la papa is a potato so you need to get that one right. So I hear you, the accent needs to be placed correctly. I never realized that non-Spanish (or Italian, Port, French) speakers used "papa" for Dad. And I sure didn't realize that it was a hipster thing. Why is that?