Genealogy Chat

My niece was about 3years old and insisted that she had White Granny and a Blue Granny!

The white one was her paternal grandmother, but the blue one ( blue rinsed hair) was the grandmother's older sister!

Interesting thread, I had a Grandma and a Nana, both were Scottish.

My child calls her grandmothers both Nanny followed by their first names.

MInd you when she was three she called one of her grandpa's nanny as well and told everyone that she had two nanny's that lived together..caused a few raised eyebrows that I had to explain at a mother's day morning tea!

2nd verse Malcolm...

Ye can shove yer other Granny aff a bus,
Ye can shove yer other granny aff a bus
Ye can shove yer other Granny
'cos she's yer Daddy's Mammy
Ye can shove yer other Granny aff a bus

My cousins gran was called Nana and when the first born great grandchild could talk they wondered what they would do as her daughter was now Nana... and one day when Scott was little his great grandmother dropped something and went to pick it up and she said oh what a duffer Nana is... from that day on she became Duffer Nana.

I am Nan or Nana; to one lot of grandchildren their other Nana is Nana Connie.. and to the other family the other Nana is Nan Anne.

Persie

We had two grandmas. We called them both grandma followed by their surname to differentiate between them when talking about them . To their face they were just grandma as they were never together .

Our daughter tho decided her grandmas were nanny but she put their surnames before nanny so she knew which was which. ie Taylor nanny etc She had very close relationships with both of them .

I am known as Nan to both our adult grandchildren and Big Nan to our grt grandchildren. Not big as In large ! Lol but big in the higher hierarchy

There's a daft Scottish song which goes:

"Ye canny shove yer Granny aff a bus
oh! ye canny shove yer Granny aff a bus
Ye canny shove yer Granny
'cos she's yer Mammy's Mammy
Ye canny shove yer Granny aff a bus!"

I think William Wordsworth wrote it. :-D

Lyndi I don't like granny but my oldest g/son (the wee devil well 6' 2" devil) always calls me that ... It's "Aw! Here's ma wee granny coming" He's too big to give a slap to :-D

My MIL in Scotland was always Nana or Nan to the children.

I used to call my maternal grandmother nanny - apparently she hated the thought of being called granny :-S
I hated calling her nanny and would always refer to her as granny when she wasn't in earshot!!

I am grandma to my granddaughter, but when I take her to play sessions or meet people out they invariably ask her 'are you with your nanny today?' :-| :-|

Odd how we use various terms for our grandparents isn't it?

My mum's mum was "Gran in Ireland" and my dad's mum was always called "Maw"

My children called my mum "Granny Bridie" and OH's mum was plain old Gran !
My dad was their Papa and the other was Grampa

I called both my grandmothers' Granny or Gran. When referring to them they were Granny (surname)

When my children were born, one grandmother was still alive, so my mum opted to be known as Nana.
When my first grandchild was born my Gran was STILL alive!
I don't like the term ;Nanna', so was known as Granny Mags or, later, Granny Meow, and the grandchildren's other grandmother is Granny Ruby (the dog's called Ruby, not the Gran), and her mother was Nan.
My sister has grandchildren, and is known as Grandma.
This makes it easier when on family holidays, my grandchildren refer to my sister as Grandma, and, to my sister's grandchildren, I'm Granny - much easier and friendlier than 'Great Aunt'. and slightly more distanced than 'Aunty'.

Actually, must point out that the term 'Granny Mags/Meow is moveable.
I was on the sofa watching TV with my elder grandson, when he was about 3. This was a leather sofa. He kept sliding his foot on the sofa, thereby making a 'Parping' noise - he laughed, looked at me accusingly and started calling me 'Granny Parp'. I had to point out that 'Granny' doesn't go with 'Parp'. If he must call me 'that' then the correct term was 'Grrrrrandmamamamamama Parp'. As the child is slightly tongue-tied, the 'Grrrrrrr' bit was difficult, so I became Granny Meow again

:-D :-D

I never knew my grandfathers, but they were referred to as granddad (surname).
My children only had one grandfather - my dad - who was called Grandad.
My grandchildren call one grandfather 'grandad' and the other 'Pops'.

So, basically, it's a matter of preference, there is no 'correct' title for a grandparent :-D

Edit: I'm English, but when I lived in Scotland as a child, I heard some children referring to a grandmother as 'Nan'.
So maybe it's also an 'area' thing, rather than Scottish/English thing.

I never used the word Nana ......... nor do I remember any friends who did.

Only my mother's mother was alive by the time I was born ................... and I called her Mother.

Mum was just that .............. Mum


The story goes that Mother thought she was too young to be called Grandmother when my brother was born, and so they settled on Mother and Father.

She would have been about 45. :-)

I came along 10 years later ................... and that's how I addressed them.

We were the only 2 grandchildren.


I actually don't like the word nana ....................... I'm Grandma to my grandson, OH is Grandpa.

Child's other grandparents are Grammy and Granddad .................... Grammy being a peculiarity of the Maritimes here in Canada

Thanks for the many and interesting replies. I can see that a Latin root might apply as in Nonna. In Spain the formal form of Grandmother is "Abuela" and Grandfather "Abuelo" however most small children refer to their Grandmother as "Yaya", In the Netherlands they use the informal "Oma" for Grandmother and "Opa" for Grandfather but Grosvader/moeder in the formal sense.

As I said, in Scotland it's Gran or Granny...which I suspect must also have a Latin root as a Catalan word for "old" is "Gran".

Whatever, when I see someone mentioning their Nan i'll wonder whether it's their Child Nurse, Granny or part of an Indian Meal. ;-)

My son's used Nana and Gran to differentiate between my mam and hubby's mam.

Kath. x

Papa in this part of Scotland means Grandfather! My MIL (Irish) was Nanna to all of her grandchildren.

As a toddler. both of my grandmothers were nan & identified by their surname. To my child´s mind, if they were Nan, my grandfathers must be Nandad & that´s what I always called them.

I had only one grandparent alive when I was born who lived with us and I called her nana my mum was also known as nana and my grand children call me nana and their pals call me nan or nanny

sally w <3

Nan was never used in my very English family!

I called both of my grandmothers Nan or Nanny....I wont be called it myself, will be called Grandma when she can talk

My daughters call my mum Grandma and their father's Nan

My g/gran and my gran hated the term Nan/Nanny

My g/gran had been a Nanny so as far a she was concerned a Nanny was a paid servant.

I also hate the term Nan or Nanny

But as I have no children this will never bother me.

And Nan as a name is just a derivitive of Ann - Anne Boleyn was also known as Nan Boleyn