-Scottish: In Scottish Gaelic, the word for grandma is “Seanmhair,” which means good mother. But other commonly used Scottish grandmother names include “Nana,” “Nanna,” “Mhamó” and “Mamó.” -Spanish: In Spanish, grandmothers are known as “Abuela” or “Abuelita.”
Ireland: Seanmháthair is Irish for grandmother, but Irish children are much more likely to use Maimeó or Móraí.
There are two names commonly used. “Nanny” (Nan is also common) and “Granny” (Gran). It's is common for one grandmother to be known as one “Nanny X” and the other to be known as “Granny Y”. That way, when the familial name isn't given, the parents know WHICH grandmother the child is referring to.
Many French children call their grandmother by the elegant "Grand-mère," which can also be shortened to "Mémé."
Etymology 2. Borrowed from Spanish yaya (“granny”).
Another popular subset of unique names are those that are derived from the (most often) grandmother's first name. So Gabby McCree is Gigi. “It's an abbreviation for 'Grandma Gabby' and also my initials growing up,” she says. (Her husband, Don, went with Pop Pop.)
In comparison Granny is the most adored name for Scottish grandmothers with 45% of people in Edinburgh using it and 31% in Glasgow. Less than 10% of Scots use the name Nanny. For grandfathers the most popular name nationwide by far is Grandad (68%) - with over two thirds using this name.
question: What do you call your grandmother in Australia? I called both of my grandmothers' Nanna. My grandchildren call me Grandma and my son's children call their maternal grandmother Babaa. Her children called their paternal grandmother Nanna and their maternal grandmother Grammy.
In Old English, the word was ealdemodor, which sounds a lot like “old mother,” and likely has roots in Old Norse. It was replaced by grandame, literally meaning “old lady,” due to the French influence over English.
Few people know that the Irish or Gaelic word for grandmother is seanmháthair ((shan a WAW her), literally meaning "old mother." Alternate spellings include seanmhair, seanmathair and sean mathair.
Grandma Bobbe is 87 years old and has over 1 million fans on TikTok. Sassy and Southern, her greatest love is her grandson, Matthew, who captures all her hilarious musings as he drives her around, showers her with affection, and even colors her hair.
Traditional Grandparent Names
The most common pairings are Grandma and Grandpa, Nana and Papa, and their variations. A few alternatives for Grandma include Grammy, Gamma, G-Ma, Granny, and Nanna. Grandfather may be shortened to Grampa, Gramps, G-Pa, Poppy or Pops.
For example, in Bardi the maternal grandmother (on Mother's side) is Garminy whereas the paternal grandmother (on Father's side) is Golli. By the same token the maternal grandfather (on Mother's side) is Nyumi and the paternal grandfather (on Father's side) is Galoonoordoo or Gooloo for short!
gookomis your grandmother (2s-3s)
lass Add to list Share. A lass is a girl. Your Scottish folk dance teacher might announce, "Lads line up on that side, lasses on this side!"
Compare Scots mam, Early Scots mame (“mother”), mamye (“wet nurse”), Saterland Frisian Määme (“mother”), West Frisian mem (“mother”).
Grandfaither or Guidsir! In 'Scots' rather than Gaidhlig it's also commonly 'Granda' and a Grandmother would be 'Grannie.
Ireland (Gaelic)
While maimeó anddaideó are the words used to address a grandmother or grandfather, there are a few different words for grandparents in Irish. For example, there are máthair chríona, which translates to “wise mother,” and athair críonna which translates to “wise father.”
Anya: Pronounced like “onion” without the “n”, this is supposedly based on a Hungarian word for “grandmother.” My mother called her grandmother by this name, and so did all of her great-grandchildren.
grandmother: many Slavic languages (such as Bulgarian, Russian, Czech and Polish), Romanian, Yiddish, Japanese. grandfather: Azerbaijani, Zulu (father, grandfather)