This isn’t exactly a craft post, but it is very important information especially if you are a soon to be grandmother! Or pregnant, and have a crazy mom who can not decide on a Grandma name. My mom was and still is very concerned about what she will be called by Maxwell, her first grand baby. After lots of research, I put together a list of 61 Grandma names so my mom had a plethora of options, ha!
UPDATE: My kids are now 2 and 4 years old and they call my mom, Nana. This was her 4th choice, haha! G, Momsie, and Bubbie were her first 3 choices, but they didn’t last. I’m sorry to say future grandparent reading this list, but those adorable little grandchildren of yours are going to help you make that grandma name decision real quick!
63 Nicknames for Grandma
I asked the ever pressing question on C.R.A.F.T. Facebook: “What do you and your kids call your grandparents?” I got a ton of fun responses so I decided to make a big ol’ list of cool grandmother names. (See the original facebook thread with lots of commentary here.)
17 Other Names for Grandma
1. Grandmother
2. Granny
3. Grand (and her name) – For example, Grand Martha (This is my paternal grandma’s name!)
4. Gramma
5. Grammy or Grammie
6. Gram
7. Grand mom
8. Gran
9. Gigi
10. G-bomb
11. Gaggy
12. G
13. G-ma
14. Grammers
15. Grandma + First letter of name
16. Big Grandma
17. Little Grandma
International Grandma Names
Grandmas are loved around the world! What do they call Grandma in other countries? My husbands family is Polish and all of his cousins call his Grandma Busha.
18. Busha, Busia, Babushka, Babcia – Polish
19. NaiNai – Chinese
20. Yamma – Icelandic
21. Bomma – Flemmish
22. Yaya – Greek
23. Nonna – Italian
24. Abuela – Spanish
25. Bubbe – Yiddish and Hebrew
26. Lola – Filipino
27. Oma – German
28. Grand Mere – French
Grandmother names that start with M
29. Marmie
30. Maw Maw or Mawmaw
31. Meema or Memaw or Meemaw
32. Mimi
33. Mims
34. Momo
35. Momoo
36. Mom mom
37. Momsie
38. Memere
Grandma names that start with N
39. Naunie
40. Nana
41. Nanny
42. Nani
43. Nonna
44. Neena
45. Nonnie
Cute Names for Grandma
46. Bella
47. Birdie
48. Bunny
49. Cookie
50. Foxy
51. Gaga
52. Graham Cracker
53. Glamma
54. Glam Ma
55. Honey
56. Lolly (and of course Grandpa would be Pop!)
57. Lovey
58. Mambo
59. Minnie
60. Queenie
61. Tootsie
62. Yaya
63. Gimmy (Like Kimmy, but with a G.)
I did another questioner on facebook, and here are tons more different names for Grandma. What do you call your Grandma and Grandpa? Or if you are a Grandma or Grandpa, what do you want to be called? I’d love to hear your Grandma names!
If you’re a new Grandma, here are some crafts to do with littles:
Comments & Reviews
Im Lolli husbands Pop..lollipop!
I love it! So cute!
My kids called my MIL grandma church because she would always take them to church and my FIL was grandpa pig because he had pigs. They still call them that and my kids are 18 and 19.
I’m going to be a first time grandmother in January. Like many others I want something different. I am seriously considering the name “Happy”! I’ve chosen this for a couple of reasons. First, because that’s the meaning of my name and second because every time I see my grandchildren I’m going to be Happy!!! What does everyone think? I would love some feedback!
My daughter and I are searching for names for me and stumbled on your post…so many cute and clever names that I wanted to share our story…
My m0ther wanted to be called grannie since she was of the hippie generation. My oldest started talking at a year and “Dodo” came out of his mouth! Turns out that a Dodo in the Old Testament of the bible was a woman who took care of children! All 6 grandkids and all their friends know my mom as Dodo! It’s fun to find Dodo books and things with Dodo written on them…like the license plate we bought her years ago,
4 R DODO…
My dad, who is divorced from my mom, wanted uncle Ron…too bad, g-pa
I love “Happy.” I’m still searching for mine. My name is Tammy, so I thought about some variation of Grandma Tammy –Ammy, Gammy, Grammy. My middle name is Lee, so I also like LeeLee. My husband wants to be Pop, so I think LeeLee and Pop sound good together. HOWEVER, my son started calling me TMAW as soon as he told us they were expecting, and he won’t even consider anything else. I really don’t like it, but I’m afraid I am stuck with it.
The good news is it’s really up to the kid 🙂 Fingers crossed that little grand nugget of yours picks something YOU like! From experience, I have a feeling TMAW will be hard for a little one to say, Ammy, Grammy, or Gammy will be much easier!
My name is Tammy lee too. This made me smile lol I too want a different title. Cute posts here
My name is Tammy Kay I have so many other friends that have been blessed with grand kids. I am trying not to duplicate their name. My husband is going to be Pops. I wish I could figure this out Will be a grandmother in March 2019. Any suggestions?
TK
I’m Tammy Lynn and will be a g-mom in November.I don’t like anything with a “maw” in it. Can’t come up with anything I like using letter “T” My nephews called me Te’Te’ until they were teenagers. My husband wants to be called Pops!
I LOVE your idea! My daughter just had her first ultrasound and I immediately started looking! We both like YaYa, I’m also partial to GiGi or Geema because my name is Genmar (pronounces Jamar).
We are Greek…so I may have my grandson call me Yi Ya….of course I have to be different and change the spelling from Yia Yia to my way.
My mom like grammama (more like grá-mamá) so we interchange granpapa for my dad with regular Granpa. My little one is only 9 months so we’ll see what evolves as she talks.
What a fun list. My mom also spent a lot of time trying to decide what her grandmother name would be. My husband’s parents are Grammy and Pops and my parents are Geemee and Jeeps (they started out as something else but Benjamin kept calling them that and it stuck).
I called both my maternal and paternal grandmothers “Mama-Ma” and our children call my mother “Granny” and I wanted them to call their father’s mother “GrandMary,” but that didn’t work out. Our granddaughter calls me “Mae,” because didn’t want to be called all the usual grandmother names. Sooooo, after much thought, I decided that since I loved my paternal grandmother so much, and her name was Annie Mae, I would like to be called Mae. My best friend’s grandchildren call her “Millie,” which I think is nice.
we are so boring, just grandma and grandpa!
We have 5 generations of grandmas…I am the newest to grandmas …I’m thinking mimsie…grandma, minnie, gigi and momo. Mama have all been taken! In my family
We have tried out several names and the one that is sticking (by way of a family inside joke) is “Choochie.” Oh, my…(stumbled this post!).
Cute list! My grandfather’s both passed before I was born, but my grandmother’s were Manene and Mamama in Spanish. My aunt is now Mamama for her grandkids. My niece calls my in-laws Abuelo and Abuela (Grandfather and Grandmother in Spanish).
My kids ended up with 5 Grandmas and 2 Grandpas – Grams, Neena, Grandma, GG and Nana — Granddad and Grandpa. Mine were Grandma and Grammie — Grandpa and Poppa.
My mom’s mom is Big Mommie(8) great grands
My dad’s mom was Poochie
My mom is Gigi (5) grandchildren
My dad is Pop Pop
My husband mom is Grandma
My husband dad was Pop Pop D ( passed away before son started to really talk)
My older grandkids call me G-ma, one of the little ones calls me Grammy, others call me Grammary. My middle daughter’s mother-in-law wanted to be called Nina, but her first grandchild (my 5th) called her Nina instead, so that’s what the rest of her grandkids call her.
My mom is Nana, my oldest nephew picked that name when he was tiny. My mother-in-law is Amie. It rhymes with Tommy.
I am called Granda. We already had a family member using Granna, but I like Granda better. I am the best Granda ever – just ask my 4 year old grandson!
Ohh that’s a good one!
My friends daughters call their Grandma mamaw.
My oldest daughter has a different grandma than the others and she calls her “Lady Ma”
My in-laws were called “MB” and “FB” as their kids always called them momma bear and father bear.
So when grand kids came along it was shortened to MB and FB.
I go by mimi 😉
My mother picked “Lizzie”. We loved it!! She was also a school teacher at a small school near college station and a lot of the school children would also call her this 🙂
Near College Station?! Are you from College Station too?! Lizzie is such a cute Grandma name!
Normangee, about 30miles from college station
Such a small world! I grew up there. Now we live in Waller. I’m trying to figure out what I want to be called♀️
I am Gimmy and I live in Brenham
My youngest granddaughter couldn’t pronounce “grandma”, so she called me “Maga”, and it stuck. I love being Maga! So maybe Max will pick their names!
My son, and now my great niece calls Grandma “Gee Gee”
Cute!
My kids call my mom Mamaw 🙂
That’s my name too! My husband is papaw – mam and pap for short.
Our grandchildren and our great grandchildren call me “Luzzy” and my husband is PawPaw
Love that!
My grandmother was called “Muzzie”. No idea why – I was the youngest grandchild (by about 18 years) so she had that name LONG before me! My other grandmother was MaMaw. My kids called my mom “Baba” – my oldest called her that and it stuck. My husband called his grandmother “Bobo”.
My was called Muzzie also. Are you are Bauer
? From Maryland
Did u ever find out if u both had the same muzzie? That would be so cool to have bumped into each other with user names on a grandparent “greatest names” website!! Well anyways if not that is a really unique name. My name as a grandmother is Nay Nay my husband is Papa she’s only 6 months. I have 4 out of 7 of my best friends grandkids ages 8 to 14 that call me Nay Nay. So she hears that all the time. My son has a half sister and her daughter calls me Nay Nay. So there are 3 of us good close ladies!! Heather is Mammie, Caroline is Yai Yai, and veronica is Nay Nay!! I’m so excited to have taken this role of Nay Nay prior to having my own grandchild. What a honor it has been, it is, and will always be to have been able to share the joy of a little one 7 years ago when I started having heathers little “babies” over to sleep, visit, play, shop, oh and the grandest was teaching and even more the learning I did for each one of her precious gems called grandchildren! Whether it be here at my home, at their home, or at My Heather’s(Mammie) home. Ok thanks for listening/reading if you made it all the way through. I need a crash course on how to keep social media comments and posts SHORT, SWEET AND THATS IT. lol I just can’t seem to get out all the feelings and emotions that are positive not negative. In such a short little blurb! Maybe! Oh I bet when Nay Nay has her hands full chasing are little feet I won’t be posting and if so quick and to the point!! She will be my teacher and give me the lesson!
When I was growing up we always called my grandparents either Grandma/Grandpa plus their last name, even though they were long Polish names!
My (grown) kids call my in-laws Grannie and Gramps. On my side of the family, my dad and stepmother are Grandpa Tom and Grandma Jan and my mom was Grandma Alice.
Mama… It’s our affectionate for our Pilipino side
One set was just grandma and grandpa. The other was Grandma and Granpa ET. ET stood for East Texas where they lived. Sometimes they were called mop and pop though. My parents are called Grammer and Papa because that is how the first grandchild pronounced grandma and grandpa and it stuck. So Maxwell might have more say in it that anyone. Luckily, since he’s the first grandchild no matter what he says it has to be cute.
Ha ha great post. I had 3 Grandmother’s growing up – Maternal = Nana, Paternal = Grandma, My Dad’s Grandmother = Granny. My Husbands Grandmother’s were referred to by Surname – Granny Grantham and Granny Peace..My MIL likes Granny! Cx
Cute! My MIL is Nana and my FIL is Poppy. And my mother is Lola (Filipino). We used to call my great grandma, grandma great so “she wouldn’t feel old” hahah! =]
My grandchildren call me Softa which is the phoenetic spelling go the Hebwprew word for Grandmother, “Savta.” It also describes both my personality and physical type. They call my Mom Bubbie which is the Yiddish word for Grandmother.
Mine were Gammy and Papaw. My kids have a Momoo, which is also what my great grandmother was called, and the grandpas are Pappy and Popoo. On my husband’s side of the family they are always just grandma and grandpa.
I am something different on any given day. We have friends that probably have the most inventive names…
Lollie and Pop!!
Love lollie and pop! So cute!
Emily is lucky enough to have a Grandma, a Mom-Mom /Pop-Pop, a Grammy/ Grampy, and a Grandpa . A Facebook friend of mine is getting ready to be a grandmother and she is going to be Foxy. 🙂
My family called my maternal grandmother “Mother”. Does anyone else do this?
yes i did my mothers parents to me were always Mother an Dad