My family has been in the South for generations and particularly in Alabama since 1830. I am almost 75 years old and my grandparents were always called Big Daddy and Big Mama. It was a term of utmost respect and endearment for them. In the Southern culture of respecting their elders, and valuing their wisdom, family heirarchy was very strong. We did not devalue them because of their age but rather revered them for their knowledge.

This is not a common Southern thing.

It’s not just a southern thing. I’m acquainted (through work) with a well known Delaware family who’s patriarch is referred to as “The Big Guy”.

I live in the south and recently heard someone referred to as Cat Daddy.

My grandfather from Arkansas was big daddy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:southerners are so weird.

This. It's like a car wreck. Horrifying, but you can't take your eyes off it.

WE are beautiful magnolia flowers dammit!

Anonymous wrote:I've heard mostly MeMaw and Mawmaw for grandmother and Pepaw and Pawpaw for grandfather.

Isn't PawPaw what Alex Murdoch called Paul after he died?

Anonymous wrote:southerners are so weird.

This. It's like a car wreck. Horrifying, but you can't take your eyes off it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I'm a sixth generation southerner and lived in the deep South my entire life until I came here. And I never ever onece heard anyoen in real life called Big Daddy.

Same here. I don't know anybody named Big Daddy lol. (I'm from Georgia which is about as Southern as it gets.)

Big Daddy is more of a Louisiana thing, I think. It might come from translating " grand pere."

First PP here. I am actually from Louisiana. Still never heard it used except in movies etc. -- usually the same movies where people use "y'all" to address individual people. I.e. movies made by non-southerners.

This might need an explanation. Y'all is the proper plural of "you" thus it can't be singular.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I call my husband big daddy

You can call your DH or Bf “big daddy” if they are bigger than 7 inches.

I heard a woman call her husband "Big D" and he's thin. I'm assuming he's a tripod.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I'm a sixth generation southerner and lived in the deep South my entire life until I came here. And I never ever onece heard anyoen in real life called Big Daddy.

Same here. I don't know anybody named Big Daddy lol. (I'm from Georgia which is about as Southern as it gets.)

I"m from actual New Orleans, as are all of my people going back to 1735 and no, never heard that. Now the French bastardizations for grandparent names is another topic entirely.

Anonymous wrote:I was in Richmond this weekend visiting an old college buddy of mine and she introduced her grandfather to me as "Big Daddy". It took me a minute to understand that. Up north when a girl calls a man "big daddy", it means something else entirely. Is this a common Southern thing? Do you say it just to grandfathers, or also fathers? It reminds me of this scene from The Princess and the Frog:

I grew up in the deep south and have never heard anyone call their grandfather Big Daddy. I have lived in this area, Europe, Asia, New York City, and California and know of no one who refers to anyone as Big Daddy!

Anonymous wrote:I call my husband big daddy

You can call your DH or Bf “big daddy” if they are bigger than 7 inches.

Anonymous wrote:Southerners should be “re-educated” a la China-Xinjiang

We could call them "fun camps."

Grew up in MD (in a farm community) and we all called my friend’s grandfather Big Daddy. It didn’t strike me as that weird.