Is ''Nana'' the maternal or paternal grandmother?

[go_go_gadget]

In my experience, ''Nana'' is almost always the maternal grandmother. I'm curious whether that's usually true, or just coincidence.

[mommaduck]

It's always been the paternal for my family and husband's family, but I'd never thought about it before. I don't think it was intentional.

[Mimm]

Is there a rule about this?

[Pink and Green Mom]

In our family, Nana was my paternal great grandmother (my father's father's mother).

 

ETA:  in my husband's family, Nana was his maternal grandmother.  Both my dad's family and my husband's family are German if that makes a difference, both are from NJ/NY/PA

[Butter]

Either, as long as they are British.

 

Neither of my grandmothers were Nana or anything similar.

 

My husband's mother's mother was Nan.

 

My children have a Nan as well.  She is my husband's mother.

 

In both cases Nan is British and the grandmothers not Nan are American.

[maize]

No Nanas in my family, I had two grandmas, my kids have a grandma and a nai nai (Mandarin for paternal grandmother).

[zoobie]

Either, but it's paternal in mine.

[Tanaqui]

No Nana in my family, either when we were kids nor with the kids today. Actually, I don't know anybody IRL who calls their grandmother Nana. Must be regional.

[HS Mom in NC]

I know Caucasian and Hispanic families who use that term here.  It can apply to either side of the family.

[Lolly]

It was paternal in mine, but I never thought of it as having a specification. Just another word for grandmother.

 

[clementine]

Paternal in mine.  I've never heard of a preference for either side of the family.  

[Excelsior! Academy]

I've always thought grandparents' names were given by the child as an endearing term from a child whilst they couldn't speak well.  Or adult preference, i.e. "I will be referred to as x."  

 

Another example: My children have a Grandmary, which is a shortened form of Grandma Mary.  

[Laura Corin]

I had two Grannies.  My children have/had a Nanny (paternal American) and a Nana (maternal British).  I occasionally ponder what I would want to be called, but haven't come to a conclusion.

[Catwoman]

I can't imagine that there is a rule about it.

 

Also, one woman can be both the maternal and the paternal grandmother if both her son and daughter have children. It would seem weird if some of the grandkids called her Nanna and the others had to call her Grandma because of some weird maternal-paternal thing.

[Butter]

I've always thought grandparents' names were given by the child as an endearing term from a child whilst they couldn't speak well.  Or adult preference, i.e. "I will be referred to as x."  

 

That's what happened with my kids.  When my oldest was little we'd say were were going to "Grandmomma's" and she decided that meant my mother was Mommis.  She assigned my dad Daddis.  And so to this day for three of my kids my parents are Mommis and Daddis.  The exception is my youngest.  He calls my dad Daddis, but calls my mom Honey.  We're not sure exactly how that happened.  At first we thought maybe because he heard my dad calling my mom Honey, but it's my mom who calls my dad Honey so who knows.  It stuck, and my mom loves it.

 

My husband's parents requested their names.  His mom is Nan and his dad was Grampy.

[73349]

Never heard of a rule for it.

 

DH's grandmothers were both called Grandma [Lastname].

My mother called both her grandmothers Nana [Lastname].

Both my father's grandmothers, I believe, were Grammy or Grandma [Lastname].

DS calls my mother and her mother Nana [Firstname], and DH's mother has styled herself Granny.

 

I think there's a tendency for names to be reused within a family, not for people to think of names as belonging to maternal or paternal grandparents.

[Entropymama]

My mother is called Grandma, DH's mother is Nana. His grandmother was also Nana. They have German heritage, so maybe that's the link. I had a Grandma and a Grandmother. She was very formal, as you might imagine. 

[Butter]

I can't imagine that there is a rule about it.

 

Also, one woman can be both the maternal and the paternal grandmother if both her son and daughter have children. It would seem weird if some of the grandkids called her Nanna and the others had to call her Grandma because of some weird maternal-paternal thing.

 

When my kids started calling my parents Mommis and Daddis, there was some concern that the children of my brother and sister would call them by a different name.  I pointed out that our cousin called our grandmother Gram, my brother called her Grandmommy, and my sister and I both called her Grandmomma (though my sister spelled it Grandmama).  It's not been an issue at all for them to have different names for different grandchildren.  I think my dad is Granddaddy for all of my brother's and sister's kids, but my sister's son calls my mom Grandmama and my brother's girls call her Grandmommy.  And then there's Adrian calling my mom Honey.

[maize]

I can't imagine that there is a rule about it.

 

Also, one woman can be both the maternal and the paternal grandmother if both her son and daughter have children. It would seem weird if some of the grandkids called her Nanna and the others had to call her Grandma because of some weird maternal-paternal thing.

Quite a few languages/cultures do have different terms for maternal and paternal grandparents, so yes grandkids related through sons use different terms than those related through daughters; there is nothing inherently odd about that, but English speaking cultures that I am familiar with have no such established pattern.

[Denise in Florida]

I missed having an 'other' button.  

 

I did not grow up hearing people call their Grandparents by nicknames. They were Grandpa Smith or Grandma Jones. I did not have a nana, nor did my friends. We also did not have pop-pops or meemaws etc.   :001_smile:

 

Just regular old boring Grandmas and Grandpas

[Word Nerd]

Either/Both. 

 

I called my late grandparents Grandma, Grandpa, and Granddad and my still living grandparent Grandma. I once suggested that I call my mom's mom Grandmammy, but she just rolled her eyes and said no. My parents are Grammy and Poppy to all their grandkids. My cousins on my dad's side called their maternal grandma Nonny. I don't hear Nana much.

[beaners]

My MIL calls herself Nana for all of her grandchildren. It isn't maternal/paternal for their family.

[happypamama]

We don't have Nanny or Nana anywhere in our families, but I think it could be either maternal or paternal.

 

I called my grandparents Grandmom and Granddad (and my grandfather, the only one of my grandparents still alive, signs cards to my children and refers to himself as G-Granddad, which I think is adorable) and Grandma and Grandpa: DH called all of his Mommom and Poppop. My parents chose to be Grammy and Grandpa, and my ILs are Grandmom and Grandpop. Our toddlers say Boppa, though, for the grandfathers; my dad has been a particular favorite of my youngest small boys.

 

I'm thinking I'd like to be Grandma. I've always liked the mental picture that a Grandma is to me (even though my own Grandma didn't fit that picture, lol).

[Guest]

I have heard it merely as the preferred name a woman chooses for herself. My friend chose Nana as her grandmother name for herself because her actual name is Nancy and she liked the similarity. I usually hear grandmothers choosing the version of grandmother that they personally like; no difference whether it's maternal or paternal.

 

How would that work anyway? I'm sitting here and I can't figure it out in my mind. If you have kids of both genders and both kids have their own kids, to some of those grandkids, you are the maternal grandmother; to some you are the paternal grandmother, right? It is almost always consistant within a family (IME); all the grandkids call my mom the same name. So, surely your son's kids wouldn't call you Nana, while your daughter's kids call you Oma or something else, right?

[MercyA]

I missed having an 'other' button.  

 

I did not grow up hearing people call their Grandparents by nicknames. They were Grandpa Smith or Grandma Jones. I did not have a nana, nor did my friends. We also did not have pop-pops or meemaws etc.   :001_smile:

 

Just regular old boring Grandmas and Grandpas

 

This, except we used first names, like Grandpa John or Grandma Mary. 

 

I always find it a little odd when grandparents insist on being called things other than Grandma and Grandpa (unless it's a cultural thing).  But, to each their own!

[Guest]

I can't imagine that there is a rule about it.

 

Also, one woman can be both the maternal and the paternal grandmother if both her son and daughter have children. It would seem weird if some of the grandkids called her Nanna and the others had to call her Grandma because of some weird maternal-paternal thing.

Yeah, okay...it's not just me! That's what I was thinking, but I also see how in different cultures it may be different.

[Rosie_0801]

Whoever answers to it!

 

As long as they pick one and stick to it. I think people are kind of weird (cognitive issues excepted) if they don't remember what they wanted their grandkids to call them.

[HS Mom in NC]

This, except we used first names, like Grandpa John or Grandma Mary. 

 

I always find it a little odd when grandparents insist on being called things other than Grandma and Grandpa (unless it's a cultural thing).  But, to each their own!

 

My kids have 5 grandparents within a 1 hour drive of my house: my mother and step-dad, my dad, my mother-in-law and my father-in-law.  That's 3 potential Grampas. My maternal grandparents were alive until my older two were tweens.  So were 3 of my husband's grandparents.  They were all local too. They got to choose what they were called when I was pregnant with my oldest.

 

No one on my mother's side of the family or my step-dad's has uttered the word "Grandma" or "Grandpa" since the terms "pa" and "ma" went out of use. The use of "Grandma" or "Grandpa" has a negative connotation to them because they associate it with low education and backwoods living. The same with the terms "Memaw" and "PawPaw" and their variants.  They're from The South or their parents were and it's a class thing to them although they explain  their reasoning without using the term "class."

 

My kids use the terms:

 

My dad: Grampa Roli (his first name is Rolan and my husband thought it was cute that my cousins called him Uncle Roli as a kids, and asked my dad if the kids could call him that. Dad agreed.

My mother: Grandmother.  There are no other acceptable options in her mind.  Her mother was called Grandmother.  Her mother's mother was called Grandmother.  Her mother's mother's mother was called Grandmother....

My step-dad: Grandfather or Grandfather Bob. 

My maternal Grandmother: Greatgrandmother

My maternal Grandfather: Grandad

 

My mother-in-law: Gramma or Grammie

My father-in-law: Grampa

Mother-in-law's mother: Gram to my kids, Gramma Strautman to my husband's generation.

Mother-in-law's father: Gramp to my kids, Grampa Strautman to my husband's generation.

Father-law's mother: Con-Con (nickname given by her oldest grandchild and annoyingly adopted by all her decedents other than my father-in-laws's who called her Grandma Crews.)

[KarenNC]

For my daughter:

Paternal--Grandma and Granddad

Maternal--Pappaw and Nanaw (which had been previously established by my stepmother's grandchildren who were much older)

 

For me: 

Maternal---Mama (firstname) and Papa (firstname), great-grandmother was Mama (lastname)

Paternal--I rarely saw her and had no real relationship, so didn't directly call her anything, thought of her as "dad's mother"

[Matryoshka]

Kids' paternal grandmother is Nama (not quite the same, but close).  But MIL's mother was also Nama to her kids, which would have been dh's maternal grandmother.  It's just the name they use in their family.

 

My kids' maternal grandmother is Oma, because we're of German descent.  I was also supposed to call my maternal grandmother Oma, but I was first grandchild and couldn't pronounce it, so it ended up being Mom-mom, but I called my Great-grandmother Oma   My dad's parents I just called Grandma and Grandpa Lastname.  Why we added Lastname I have no idea, as there was no reason to differentiate.  They lived on the opposite coast, so I barely knew them.

[Loowit]

My children call their grandmothers "Grandma".  When they were younger they distinguished by Grandma Blue House or Grandma Brown House, now it is usually just Grandma for my mom and Grandma Blue for MIL. 

 

My dad's mom is Nanny or Nan, although I tend to just call her Grandma (last name).  My other grandma was always Grandma (last name).  Nana is not used commonly in my family or in DH's.

[Southern Ivy]

My mom is "Nana" in our family. However, my friend's mother-in-law is Nana. So, I guess for me it's maternal and paternal. 
Never really thought about it though. 

I never called my grandmothers "Nana". They were Mammaw and Grammy. My mom chose Nana because she felt like she was too young to be Grandma. 

[Carla]

It's completely to do with the grandparent's heritage in our family. My husband's parents were born in the Netherlands - they are Oma and Opa. My dad was born in the Netherlands too. He is Opa.

 

But my mom was born in Newfoundland and is of British descent (in fact - Newfoundland wasn't even part of Canada when she was born, they joined Confederation in 1949). She is Nana!

[Southern Ivy]

My children call their grandmothers "Grandma".  When they were younger they distinguished by Grandma Blue House or Grandma Brown House, now it is usually just Grandma for my mom and Grandma Blue for MIL. 

 

My dad's mom is Nanny or Nan, although I tend to just call her Grandma (last name).  My other grandma was always Grandma (last name).  Nana is not used commonly in my family or in DH's.

My sister did this. :)

We had Blue Shirt Papaw (the first time she was able to remember who he was, he was wearing a blue shirt) and Coffee Papaw/Coffee Mamaw (Papaw would always make her a mug of milk and a little bit of coffee when she was a toddler. They'd sit on the porch and have early morning talks. It was precious.)

[Bluegoat]

Either.  In my family it is my maternal grandmother.  for my mom though it was her paternal grandmother, I'm not sure about her maternal side.  My husband called his paternal grandmother nana.

 

I do associate it somewhat with a British usage.

[dancingmama]

My in-laws were called grandma and grandpa. My kids are the last of a long generation of grandkids and that's what they had always been called.

 

My parents are Spanish and wanted to be called abuela and abuelo. My son, first born grandkid, couldn't pronounce it so he just said "Abu". Both were Abu for a long time and all the grandkids that followed adopted it. Now my mother is Abu and my father is abuelo even though all the grandkids speak just fine. :)

 

No nan as here but I've heard it used for both maternal and paternal.

[KarenC]

It's maternal in our family, but I don't know why it couldn't go either way.

[HRAAB]

My children called both their grandmothers grandma. My granddaughter calls her paternal grandmother Nana, and I'm Oma. I've seen it go either way.

[bettyandbob]

Do you mean cousins might address their grandmother differently? That would be odd. In our family Nana is the paternal grandmother, but in the families of dh's sisters Nana is the maternal grandmother. So, all the cousins call their grandmother the same thing.

[LucyStoner]

We have zero nanas in this family. Just grandmas.

[Ellie]

No nanas in my family, either, but it would not occur to me to think about whether someone whose gchildren call her "nana" is the paternal or maternal grandmother.

[Artichoke]

No nana here, either.    I'm a second mom to two of our boys so I have a made-up name instead of Grandma. It works for us, and I'm happy that I got to choose :-) 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Never had a Nana, I've got a Mimmy and a Granny, my mom is called Mammaw.  I think DH's were both Grandma.

[Guest]

My children called both their grandmothers grandma. My granddaughter calls her paternal grandmother Nana, and I'm Oma. I've seen it go either way.

I personally really like Oma, though no one in my hisotry has used that AFAIK. I do have German ancestry in part of my family, though. I could get behind Oma for myself when it comes time to decide.

[wintermom]

I don't know anyone who uses the term "nana" but I can't see there being anything in the word that would logically reference it to being paternal or maternal. In Norway, the terms mormor (mother's mother) and farmor (father's mother) can be used, so it's very obvious which grandparent one is referring to. They also have bestemor which is more generic. 

[AHASRADA]

My grandparents (and great-grandparents) were all called Grampa and Grammy Lastname when I was growing up.

 

DH is from a different cultural and language background (ILs still live overseas), so they have their own terms that my kids use. So, my parents have always simply been Grampa and Grammy (shortened to Gram as they've gotten older) since they don't need to be distinguished by their last name.

 

Two of my grandparents remarried. My step grandfather was Italian and called Papa by his bio grandkids, so I did the same. My step grandmother married my grandfather in her 50s, never had any children of her own, and went by her first name.

 

Funny thing, I had two living grandparents when my kids were small (still have a grandfather). Somehow they became Old Gram and Old Grampa. Some outsiders seemed shocked and dismayed at the apparent disrespect, but they both embraced the titles as terms of endearment. My 89 year old grandfather is still called Old Grampa by my teens. Can't argue with facts 😉.

[ScoutTN]

Neither here. 

We have Grammy and Nina (whose given name is Linda).

[Ivey]

In my experience, it's pretty random. 

My maternal grandmother was "Nana", but all my cousins called her that, regardless of whether she was their maternal or paternal grandmother. My mother and her sisters all go by "Nana". 

 

My paternal grandmother was "Grammie". 

 

Dh had a "Gran" (maternal) and a "Granny" (paternal), and his mother is "Gran". 

[HRAAB]

I personally really like Oma, though no one in my hisotry has used that AFAIK. I do have German ancestry in part of my family, though. I could get behind Oma for myself when it comes time to decide.

I never wanted to be Nana and was pleased the other grandmother was Nana. My daughter suggested Oma and Opa, and it just felt right. I don't have any German, but dh is mainly German. Perfect.

[Farrar]

My maternal grandmother was Nana. My mother, so my kids' maternal grandmother, is "Nana Firstname" or just "Firstname." But her first name is a nickname and sort of works as a grandparent name.

 

I think it's just coincidence though. I think grandparents get to choose their names. Except, of course, when the first grandchild decides to call them something else, like in the case of my Banny (my paternal grandmother).