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.

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.

I'm from Eastern Europe. In my language it literally means Dad.

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

I grew up calling my father "papa" and so when my husband and I had kids I want my girls to call my husband papa as well but I am also from the northern Illinois and it is not unheard of to hear others that call their fathers papa as well. We have ton of Swedish people and polish people there, maybe that's why. But my kids only call me mama as well it's just what they did.

Another Papa that doesn't do it for affectation. My father's parents immigrated, so he called his father Papa so that's what my siblings & I used. My kids called me Papa until school age, now I'm Dad, Daddy, Papa - and even occasionally Papi from the child who has studied Spanish. In a crisis however, it's always Papa.

We use mama and papa because we are a bilingual Russian/English family, and we didn't want to use two words for "dad". My husband, who grew up with a Spanish speaking father, called his dad "pop", so it wasn't too weird for him to go by "papa". I'm sure once our son is older he will use Mom and Dad on us.

Goes better with mama

I don’t know anyone that does this. I doubt I would want remain friends if it started.

Indian immigrant here. I always called my dad "Papa" and my mom "Mummy". DH is the same. Mostly our kids call me by these names when fancy strikes them - "Mumma", "Mom", "MA", "Mama", "Mommy" - but rarely ever "Mummy". Mostly our kids call DH these name - "Dad", "Daddy", "Pa", "Pops", but never "Papa". We also have Tamil and Muslim friends - they use Ammi/Ammah and Abba/Abbu/Appah for mom and dad. I find all of them sweet and loving. In any case, most of are able to discern who the children are refering to so what is the issue?

Only people I know in my age range that have their kid call the father "papa" are those who try to follow hipster, crunchy, gotta-be-me trends.

I know two families who use "papa" and they are all american. I think its a new hipster trend.

Anonymous wrote:I speak French with my children and "Papa" works in both French and English.

This is like my brother's family!

How do you know someone isn't European? Some maybe don't have obvious accents? This is my BIL. Italian papa (accent on second syllable), but unless he told you he's Italian you'd never know. He speaks perfect English. Guess some people think he's being a hipster poseur.

Affectation
Same as saying "whilst, mobile (for cell phone), boot and bonnet for hood and trunk of car.