When it comes to choosing a grandparent name, a lot of people decide before the baby is born what they want to be called. (Or don’t want to be called) Whether you’re a grandparent or parent of a grandchild, you might be inspired to adopt one of these names for grandma and grandpa as your own.
I never really thought about it when I was told that I was going to be a grandma. I have always just called my grandparents grandma and grandpa so my thought was that was just a natural thing to be called by a grandchild. Boy, was I wrong!!
Keep reading till the end to find out how I got my grandma name. In the meantime, I asked people on Instagram and Facebook to help with names for grandma and grandpa. I received so many responses!! Thank you to everyone that commented.
It was so much fun to go through everyone’s responses. There are so many cute nicknames that I didn’t even know existed until now! Feel free to keep sharing any other fun nicknames in the comment section below.
I’ll start the list with the grandfather’s nicknames because there are fewer variations of those. They are all still so cute! They are also alphabetized for you.
- Baba
- Colonel
- Dada
- Daddylo
- Dziadek
- Gramps
- Granddy
- Grandpa
- Grumpa
- Joe Joe
- Lalo (for Abuelo in Spanish)
- Nonno
- Pa
- Papa
- Papa (name)
- Papa Memmzie
- Papaw
- Papi Beep Beep
- Pappaw
- Pappy
- Papu
- Paw
- Pawpaw
- Pepaw
- Pop
- Poppa
- Poppers
- Poppie
- PopPop
- Poppy
- Pops
Now it’s Grandma’s turn! There were so many cute nicknames for grandmas!! I’m sure that there is one in this list that you will love. You can mix and match these with the above grandfather’s names.
- Abu (for Abuela in Spanish)
- Awesy (short for awesome 😁)
- Baba
- Babcia
- Bama Gramma
- Bambi
- Busha
- Dadi
- Debba (word play from a name)
- Dido
- G-Ma
- Gaga
- Gam Gam
- Gamma
- Gammy
- GG
- Gigi
- Gima
- Glamma
- Gram
- Grammie
- Grammy
- Grams
- Gran
- Grandma
- Grandma (name)
- Grandmy
- Granny
- Granny Jo
- Honey
- Lala
- Lola
- Lolli
- Lovey
- Mamala
- Mamaw
- Mammers
- Mammy
- Maw
- Meme
- Mimi
- Mimmy
- Momo
- Mumsie
- Munner
- Muzzy
- Nana
- Nanna
- Nanna (name)
- Nannie
- Nanny
- Narnie
- Nay Nay
- Nen
- Nene
- Nennie
- Nin
- Ninnie
- Nonna
- Nonnie
- Nonny
- Oma
- Pat Pat
- Tata
- YaYa
- Zamma
Just for fun, I thought that I would look up what celebrities grandkids call them. What I found is pretty interesting but some are fun too!
- Susan Sarandan – Honey
- Goldie Hawn – Glamma and Gogo
- Blythe Danner – LaLo
- Suzanne Sommers – Zannie
- Martha Stewart – Martha
- Debbie Reynolds – Aba Daba
- Naomi Judd – MawMaw
- Kris Jenner – Lovey
- Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson – Pappou and Yia Yia
Choosing a grandparent name that you want your grandkids to call you can be as difficult as choosing your own child’s name. But, remember, that while you may have a really cute name picked out for yourself, your grandchild may have other plans!!
That brings me to what my grandchildren call me. I really had no preference at all to what my grandkids would call me. I just figured that I would be called grandma like I called all of my grandmas so I didn’t give it much thought. Our grandson decided on something even better!
Our grandson was around one and a half years old or close to two when he was trying to get my attention while I was in the kitchen. All of a sudden, I heard “AMMA!” from the other room. I’m pretty sure that he was trying to say Grandma but it came out as Amma. Either way, from then on, I became known as Amma and I love it! 😁I couldn’t have picked a better name for myself if I tried.
Moral of the story is that no matter what you want to be called, as soon as you hear your grandchild call you for the first time, your heart will melt and you will say “THAT’S IT, THAT’S MY NAME!”
We’re Mommom and Poppop! All the grandparents on all sides of both our families were the same – we’re from Delmarva (very rural) so I don’t know if it’s a Mid-Atlantic thing. Most of our friends there are Mommom and Poppop too. We live in Texas now and they all seem to be Grandma and Grandpa.
So cute!!!