Rachel writes:
Hi Swistle! I was wondering if you would be kind enough to address Grandparent names on your baby name blog. My mom has just at three months to decide what she would like her first granddaughter to call her and she is having a tough time coming up with the perfect Grandmother name! She is quite picky and does not want to use any name that starts with Grand____, Nana, or Me-maw. Her first name is Robin and recently someone suggested Birdie, which is super cute, but not something my mom would use, if she doesn’t even like Grandma! A few names she has considered but has not fallen in love with are Maymay, (surprisingly) Grandmommy, and Nonna. I am wondering what your readers call their grandmothers, to give her more options to think about!
Thanks!
Oh, fun question! I called both my grandmothers “Grandma” (with surname if necessary to differentiate) but many of my friends called their grandmothers “Memere” (pronounced MEM-may).
While looking up how to spell Memere (I still don’t know where to put the accents, or how to do the one that goes from up left to down right), I found a link to The Name Nerds‘s post on this same topic.
What did all of you call your grandmothers?
I called my maternal grandmother Gaga. (It seems a little silly now that Lady Gaga is so famous, but this was years ago!) I couldn’t quite say “grandma” when I was first learning to speak, so I called her Gaga. As the first grandchild of the family, the name stuck, and now she’s known as Gaga to all the cousins.
My paternal grandmother was called Grandma Rose – straight and to the point, just like she was. :)
I called both my grandfathers Papa, although one was Papa Fred and the other was just simply Papa.
My mother was desperate to have her first grandchild call her something that when my daughter gurgled something, my mother proclaimed that she said “Grackie.” All of her grand kids have called her that or “Grack” once they grew up. My first name is Homa and I wanted my granddaughter to call me that. So far we are at “oma” which is great.
If she is not necessarily wanting a “granmotherly” name, I think Gi-Gi is adorable. (Pronounced Like “Gee-that was great.)
I called one grandmother by her name; how about having the kids just use Robin?
Mimi is used a lot as a grandmother term.
I love the idea of letting the grandkids come up with their own name once they start talking. My son started out saying “Umma” before he could get out the word “grandma” and it stuck.
My parents are both divorced and remarried so my son has three grandmas. My MIL chose to be called Oma. My mom is Lulu (her name is Lou) but we often add a Grandma in front of that, though it sounds like ou-ou because my son can’t make an L sound yet. Then my stepmom is just Grandma, which sounds more like Gramma. For myself, my grandmothers were Grandma (sometimes with a fn too) and Grammie.
I had a “Grandma” and “Mamar” (pronounced MOM-R). My daughter has a “Grandma” and a “Nana”.
I don’t like the idea of letting the child create the name, because then you go months before the child can talk not knowing what to refer to the grandparent as. It is always fun and cute when the kid mispronounces something and it sticks, but I don’t like it when it’s forced.
I like Mimi and Gigi (although we use GG for Great-Grandma).
My aunt is Emme because when her kids (my cousins) were little, she would write notes and stick them in their lunches and sign them ME (as in the personal pronoun). I think in that case, her grandmother name is a sweet tribute to a memory her kids had of her as a mom.
I also have an aversion to Grandmommy. For whatever reason, it is too close to “Mommy” to me and I don’t want to share my title. That’s just me though.
For the record, I LOVE Birdie.
I called mine Meemaw & Ditdaddy and GrandMom & GrandDad. My kids have 3 grandmothers who are Grannie, Nana and Mimi. The Grandfathers are Pop, Papa and Grandpa (deceased so we didn’t really have to think of anything super cute). They also have my grandparents who they call Grandma and GrandDaddy (which my grandparents chose…I was using the names I had called them, Meemaw and Ditdaddy but they refer to themselves this way instead).
Look to other languages especially any you are descended from. Germany and other German speaking countries use Oma and Opa, Italy had Nonna/Nonni, etc…
On my mom’s side it was Grandma & Grandpa but on my dad’s side it was Mimere (mim-AIR) and Pipere (pip-AIR). I like the fact that it was different on both sides – that way we didn’t have to distinguish between “Grandma D___” or “Grandma C____”.
I called mine Grandma and I had only one so it didn’t matter what I called the other.
My kids call my mom Grandma and my husband’s mom Grams.
I hate to go out on a limb, but maybe she could just get called Robin, if she’s so concerned about it.
We’re pretty boring in that we just use “Grandma”. Though, in our family (and David’s…) we use first names to differenciate. Grandma Sarah, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Clark, etc.
I have a good friend who calls one side Grandma and Grandpa, but on the other side it’s Oma and Papa. Oma (pronounced “Oh-ma”), I think, is German for Grandma. I actually really like it, it rolls off the tongue nicely, and it’s unique w/o sounding old.
I also like it b/c her kids know they are either going to Grandma and Grandpa’s or Oma and Papa’s.
My mother chose “Nana” and now is thrilled she did because it’s one of the first words my daughter could say! :) It’s such an easy one.
Her other grandmother is “Grammy”, which is what I called mine growing up.
I grew up calling my grandparents “Grandma [First Name]”etc. My husband’s family did “Grandma [Last Name].” We’re now doing a combination for our son’s grandparents.
The exception is that my swedish mom decided that she preferred the swedish version of Grandma, which is “Mormor” (literally, mother’s mother). We love this name.
I LOVE this topic! My grandparents were always ‘Gramma & Grampa’ to me (surnames where necessary), and I always wanted a ‘Nana’ or ‘Memere’. Now that I just have one surviving grandparents, I call her Gram.
(Though I just remembered one of my cousins called my other Gramma ‘Mammy’)
I love Gi-Gi for a grand-name, and in fact that’s what we called my Great Grandmother.
GiGi was my Gram’s MIL, and they did NOT get along. So when Gram’s first grandkid was born, she did NOT want to be known as GiGi. When that grandbaby was old enough to make sense of the names/relationships, she was told that her HER Grandmother (my aunt) was “just plain” Grandma, and that Grandma’s Mom was her Great Grandma.
You could see the lightbulb flick on, and she exclaimed “So she’s FANCY Grandma!”
And the name stuck – Gram is now also known as Fancy Grandma.
PS – I LOVE Birdie! So stinkin cute, and creative!
I called one Grandma Surname, and the other Gummy, which came from an older cousin’s mispronunciation of “Grammy.”
Also, I now wish my mother’s name was Robin so my eventual children could call her “Birdie.” SO CUTE.
I didn’t have contact with either one of my grandmothers growing up, but we referred to them both as Grandma in conversation. My mother is Grammy to my son, and my MIL is Gramma. I work with a lady who’s Glamma Judy, from a mispronounciation of Gramma. I thought it was kind of fun. Oma is so cool, too!
We have a Nan (and Pop) and a Grandma (and Grandpa). A cousin has a Nona (I think really Nonna, but long o), and I love Oma. Nona Robin is sweet, I think.
I’m in south LA and have two MawMaws and PawPaws. That is pretty common here. My parents will be (our baby can’t talk, she’s two months old) Grammy and PawPaw and hubby’s are Grandmama and Grandpa.
My family was just like yours, Swistle: Grandma, and if you needed specificity, Grandma Surname.
My mom is Grandma, and my mother-in-law is Nanna (2 N’s because her name has 2 N’s). My Dad is Pa (which is HI-larious because he made the proclamation that he would be called Grandfather or maybe Grandpa only), and my father-in-law is Pop Pop.
I called both of my grandmothers Grandma, pretty standard.
My cousin’s kids call their grandmother “Ama” and their grandfather “Pop Pop”. Their grandma didn’t want to be Grandma either :). In any case, these names are cute and easy for toddlers to say.
My grandparents were just Gramma and Grampa to me. I never met my paternal grandparents, but my cousins all called my Grandma “Grandma Ruth.”
On my mom’s side, all my cousins’ kids are around my age or younger, and didn’t know my grandpa as well as my sister and I did. But they called him “Donkey Grandpa” because he used to use his hands as donkey ears and hee-haw…I don’t think I ever saw him do this, but the cousins remember this and it was their name for him. Thought that was sweet. :)
My kids call one of their grandmas “Oma” and one “Nana”. My grandma, who is their great-grandma, they call “G.G.” (for great-grandma).
I was going to give a dissertation what I called my grandparents and what my kids call theirs, but then MY SISTER POSTED THE WHOLE THING FIRST. (Hi, Auntie G!)
grandmothers are the best!
i had a “grandma nana” [i guess i couldn’t decide between the two sentiments!] and a “grandma plainfield” [grandma + town she lived in! haha!].
i now call my only living grandmother “gram” and it is perfect.
in my boyfriend’s family, they have a “mammy” and a “gi-gi” for a great-grandma, which would work for a grandma, too!
one other option that would be sweet is “mooma”. my father called my mother “mooma” as a nickname when they were first married and each time i hear the word, i am reminded of their early relationship. “bobbin” [a spin-off of her first name] could be cute, too!
congratulations to your family!
*
I just called mine Grandma. My kids call theirs Grandma, Grammy, and Nonnie (that’s a great-grandma). Tons of info/suggestions here.
I suggest Oma too, Opa and Oma are grandma and grandpa in Germany and Holland (so @Homa, your name is perfect for a grandmother, and no need to correct your granddaughter’s pronunciation :-)
P.S. “Nonnie” is pronounced to rhyme with pony. From the Italian “Nonna.”
We’ve got Nannie & Papa Cy, Grandma J, Ga and Papa, and Grandma [Lastname]. Ga is my mom, and I think it’s the funniest thing. When she sends a gift or something, I’ll say, oh, we need to thank Ga.
I used Nana and Grandma Maggie. I like oma, we used mumu (but it is prn moo moo so not so great for English speaking countries lol). I think Gigi is a great suggestion, that’s my fave!
My maternal grandmother is Grammy, although when we were little it was Grandma Cora (her first name). Somewhere along the way I started calling her Gram-cracker and it morphed in to Grammy, and that is what EVERYone calls her now.
Paternal grandma is just Grandma. (My grandpa’s are Grandpa and Gramps – his choice).
My son only has one grandma, who he calls Gramma, but my dad’s girlfriend is known as Nana Gail.
We also have my husband’s late mother, who we refer to LOVINGLY as Ghost Grandma. Since my son is only 2 we don’t really use this term much. Yet. Ha.
He’s also got three or so grandpas who are each known as Grandpa Ted, Grandpa Mark, and Grandpa Robert. As needed.
My mom also struggled with this. My maternal grandmother has always been Memere (pronounced ‘may mehr’ or ‘ma mehr’), which is a french term. The literal translation of grandmother is grand-mere. My mom does not want to be called the same thing as her mom (even though her sisters are all Memeres). I was disappointed, but I said it was her choice. I suggested and she likes Meme, which is okay; but I’m still not sure how we are pronuncing it (likely ‘may may’ definitely not ‘mi mi’). It seems kind of hard to say and thus it might evolve. My dad is not using the french Pepere (he’s not french), but I honestly don’t remember what he picked.
Personally, I prefer names that are common in your ethnicity or heritage (e.g Nonnie is Italian, Uma is German/Dutch, Memere is French, etc.).
My mom is Nonnie. My husband’s mother is Nana. My grandmothers were Grandma Jean and Grandma Mary Jane. My great aunt was Mamaw and strangely enough, Sister.
My grandmothers were both Grandma (with surnames as needed). My grandfathers were however “Papa Dad” (paternal) and “Papa Mike” (maternal). I think that came from my older brother repeating what he heard my dad calling each of them.
We are pretty traditional with our daughter. they are both Grandpa & Grandma to her with surname initials as needed.
I called my maternal grandmother Bebe because her name was Reba & that’s how it came out when I was little. My dad’s mother was Oma because she was German.
We let our parents choose what they wanted to be called. My mom chose Nana. His mother chose MomMom, which I found a bit problematic at first because it was so close to Momma, which he calls me. But he figured it out pretty quickly. I have absolutely no clue what I’ll want to be called if I am lucky enough to have grandchildren.
For those who don’t dig any “grand”ness: I have a friend who doesn’t either, so her granddaughter calls her Honey. It is the cutesy thing ever.
I called both of my grandmothers “Grandma” (one with her first name and one with her last name to differentiate).
My aunt is called Grantie (Great-Auntie). I have a friend whose parents chose their grandparent names and chose Doc (he’s a doctor) and K-ma (her name is Kathryn). My uncle’s grandkids call him Grumps.
I love these Grandma names:
-Oma
-YiaYia (it’s Greek and pronounced yaya)
-Mimi
I called my grandmothers Nana, Manou (French), and Nonna (Italian). Yes, I had three.
My kids call their grandmothers Nini and Grammy. Grammy was chosen by me when my son was 15 months old, and my MIL had still been too indecisive as to choose a name for herself. She got her feelings hurt one day that my son called my mom by name but not her. She thought that my mom must clearly be the favorite, so I explained that he had no favorites, he just didn’t know what to call her, and I just started calling her Grammy from that point on. At first she wasn’t crazy about it, but now I think she loves hearing the kids say it, and I was tired of not knowing what to call her!
I just called my grandparents Grandma or Grandpa with their surname if necessary. My kids call my parents Grandma and Papa (my dad’s preference) and my husband’s parents Grandpa and Glori (her idea, her first name is Lori). The funny part is my kids are still pretty young and get confused if someone asks if Papa is their Grandpa or Glori is their Grandma. They always say no. My niece also calls my parents Grandma and Papa.
I called mine Grandma and Grandmother. My kids call theirs Grandmom and YaYa. Initially they both wanted to be called Gram, but then my mom came up with Grandmom and my partner’s mom started off as Gram until she sent us a talking picture frame that sang “I love you, yeah, yeah, yeah.” She put a picture of herself in it and my son, who was around one at the time, started calling her YaYa. Later we found out this is the Greek word for Grandma (crazy coincidence) and she’s been YaYa ever since, even though none of us is Greek. Take away lesson: You could always look to other languages for inspiration if you need ideas. Or wait until the child is talking and let her come up with something cute.
My daughter has 3 sets of grandparents. After MUCH discussion it was decided that she would have an Oma and Opa (German), Nana and Grandpa and Grandma and Lolo (Philipino). She couldn’t say Grandma or Grandpa though and now calls them Baudy (grandma) and Bada (grandpa)!
Nonna and Papa, for my Italian grandparents and Grandma and Grandpa for the German-Irish set.
My cousins used Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw for their grandparents, which might be an idea (similar to mama, but with a British twist :) )
I had a Granny and a Granddaddy (dad’s side) and a Neema and a Papa (mom’s side).
My nephews call my parents Granna and Granddaddy. My mom chose Granna- at the time my sister was dating a guy who called his grandmother that and we liked it for our mom. She’s pretty hip for a grandma, so Granna really suits her.
Here in Norway we have three ways of addressing grandparents, and I use all of them :)
My maternal grandparents are divorced and both remarried before I was born. We’ve always called the step-grandparents by their first name, but earlier this year I heard a new expression: Bonus-grandma/grandpa! I think it’s fabulous, and it works with any other family connection as well and puts a seriously positive spin on it!! Lovely!
One one side I have ‘Besten’ and Anne – Besten is a form of Bestefar which is grandpa, only the best- part actually means best! Besta is the feminine equivalent :)
Besten’s first wife and my grandma is called Mormor, often shortened to Momo. Mormor literally means Mother’s Mother and you can also use Morfar (Mother’s Father), Farmor (Father’s Mother) and Farfar (Father’s Father). I also assume they could all be shortened like Mormor. Then you’d get Momo, Mofa, Famo and Fafa, although I think it’s only really Momo that’s actually used in Norway.
The last way is Bestefar and Bestemor which is what I used for my paternal grandparents. Again the Best- part means just that! :)
Also, if we use a combination including the first name, it’s Beste Rose or Beste John. Beste regardless of sex :)
Momo in particular is actually adorable! I love that one for a grandma!
my mil -who is very vain and thus thinks she is too young to be called grandmother/ma although she is over 80- told my sil who is highly pregnant: “i guess the baby will just call me mimsie”. none of us know where she got that. her 2 other grandchildren call her grandmama.
We have a few duplicate names but all of our “pairs” are different, so it’s easy to distinguish who we’re talking about!
PaPa (said “Paw-Paw”) & Grandmother
Pappy & Grammy
Papa & Gram or Gramma Firstname
Grandpa & Grammy
Grandpa & Grandma
Papi (like Poppy) & Lola (We’re Filipino)
My mom was called Momo (Mom-oh) when the kids were tiny, but they got to be too cool for it! ;)
And like many, we have a Gigi for Great Grandma.
I say let the kids decide.
My son calls my mom Glams and my husband’s mom Grandma. His great grandmas are Nana and Grandma Great (both chose what they wanted the great grandkids to call them.)
One of my grandmother’s was named “Meme” by my oldest cousin, so that is what we all called her. Meme and Papa.
I am the only grandchild of my other grandmother. When she was trying to teach me to say “Gramma” I apparently started saying “Bonah” (pronounced like bon-bon not bone), and she’s been Bonah ever since!
I’ve heard of Gigi being used …
One of my friends calls her grandma Oma. I like that a lot. There’s also Gigi or Grams. I like YaYa, personally. Grandkids are a ways away, but I think I’d like to be called YaYa.
When I was pregnant a friend of mine told my mom that she was too young to be called Grandma, so we decided to come up with another name. Mom settled on Nana. My dad said he wants to be called Pappy, but often refers to himself as Pop.
My grandparents were/are Grandma and Grandpa (maternal) and Grammy and Pop Pop. My Grandpa is Paw-Paw to my munchkin and Grammy is GiGi to her great grandkids.
My mother’s grandmother was “nanny bird” — perfect for a robin! My family is full of weird family nick-names. My mom is now Ami – a play on the French for friend, but pronounced more like “am-eee”. We have mee-maws, bananas, and a bebe.
My grandmother is Mimi…love it!
What about something in another language? Especially, but not necessarily, if you have an ancestral connection to that language? For example, my husband is German and so we plan for our kids to call his parents Oma and Opa. His parents are actually German so for them, this is the natural choice. But what about Abuela, Spanish-style, or Bubby, Jewish-style? Or Oma? I love that word.
I always just called my grandmothers “Grandma [first name].” Occasionally, I would use Grammy or Gramma.
My mother insists that when I have a child, she will be called Mimi.
For the record, my niece calls her grandpa “Papapa,” which I think is about twenty times cuter than just Papa.
Maternal Grandparents:
Grandma and Poppa
(I grew up living with them in our same home; sometimes we’d just call them Grammy, Gram, Pop, Pops, and my one cousin called him Ol’ Bud — he was always Grandpa if I was talking about him outside of my family though; Grandma still lives here, but my grandpa passed away in 2005).
Paternal Grandparents:
Grandma Barb and Poppa Jim
(we see them a few times a year, and so I guess this was how we told them apart; these were the grandparents with the first names, haha).
My own parents will probably be Grandma and Poppa too (although I for whatever reason find it weird to consider calling my dad Poppa, even though it’s also what HE called HIS grandfathers so I’m sure he’ll expect it).
My boyfriend’s parents will be Babcia (bab-cha) and Dziadek (ja-dek) because that’s the Polish version of Grandma and Grandpa and they’re Polish.
I never considered grandparents choosing a name they wanted; I guess I just always figured people were whatever their own parents were, etc. This is a really cool post topic!
My daughter has a Grammie and a Papa (paternal) and a Grandma and a Grandpa (maternal). Grandma often becomes Grandma Beth and Grandpa is Grandpa Mark and very occasionally it’s Grammie Jan and Papa Bob. My friend’s kids call her mom G’Mommy which is kinda cute.
To clarify: I expect said Polish Boyfriend to be “My Husband” when our children call his parents that, lol. We’ve just been together 5 years so I know what’s coming eventually, LOL.
Also: “Memere” as “MEM-may” is really throwing me off, as the Canadian French Student wants to say “Muh-mare”.
MiMi (my sisters son calls my mom this)
GiGi (my cousin’s kids call their grandmother this)
Nana (i have heard this one alot)
Libba (my aunt is called this by her grandkids)
Granny (what i called my grandmother)
and i completely disagree with the concept of waiting to see whatever the child will call you themselves… b/c you have to give them SOME kind of direction or they will call you “dog” or “ball” or whatever… u know? I mean, what will you call yourself TO them? or sign a card with? they will never associate you with a name if you dont direct them…. :)
My step-sister was the first to have children and she and my mom agreed my mom would be momo (what my siblings and I call her). I actually really love it, and teach my boys to use it, too.
My MIL is a different story. She is 1/16 Cuban, so everyone in her line is abuela. My husband could not pronounce abuela at first, so it transitioned into way-wee. I thought it was adorable and wanted to continue the tradition and keep his grandmother’s memory.
So we have momo and way-wee.
My grandparents were always Grandma and Grandpa. My 18mo daughter uses Gamma and Pawpaw. I’ve also heard other people use Mame.
Also, I really like Anya from the Name Nerd’s list.
My son determined the grandparent names for both sides of the family (as he was the first for both). It was going to be Grandmother and Granddad for my husband’s side (my Southern MIL was desperate to hear a teeny tiny voice pronounce grandmother) but they ended up as Mommom and Daddad. This would bother me except it’s what my kid chose. It’s funny–for a while, my kids’ Great-Granddad was Dad-dad-dad…but now he’s Granddad.
On my side, my mom is memaw and my dad is papa.
I’ve heard Grams, Granna (one of my favorites), Nonna, Omi, Mimi and we called my grandma mamaw (like Ham-ma).
I have a friend and her MIL wanted to be called GrandLady (her name is Lady–and this seems absurd to me but suites her bizarre personality) but has settled for Grandmama.
Well, I am pretty conventional and call my Grandmothers – who are both still alive, and one is 92, Grandma and Nana. The only reason I call one of my grandmother’s Nana is because when I was born, my Great Grandmother with the same sirname was still alive and called Grandma and my Grandmother wanted to differentiate herself. My family thought using “Great Grandma” as a grandma name would be awkward.
It seems today there are so many different names for Grandma. My own Mom is simply Grammy, but my MIL who is French Canadian is MeMere – I never remember where to put the accents either, but I’m improving. I was spelling it Meme on her first birthday card from my daughter, and my MIL said, “That says ME-ME.”
For great grandmothers, many are now called GiGi – or GG for Great Grandmother – I find that cute and it could work for a Grandma too.
Sorry for any repeat suggestions. I didn’t have time to read the 60 posts!
I love this topic! I only had one grandmother growing up, and no great-grandmas, so I just had Grandma and Grandpa. My grandpa’s father was Paw-Paw.
We call my mother Lovie, and my daddy Gramps. At first she was going to be Grammy, but she didn’t like it, so we came up with something else. My step-MIL was already Nana to her many grandchildren, and then my husband’s mom is Grandma Her Name. Great grandparents are either MeMaw and PePaw (on my husband’s side) but it’s hard for me to call them anything beside Grandma and Grandpa. My grandparents are Granbonnie and Grandpa. So far, my son doesn’t say their names.
What a great topic!
My children call their grandmothers Grandma and Mimi.
I called mine Grandma and Jane (she wanted her first name). I LOVED calling Jane by her first name. She felt more like a sister, which was really cool to me growing up.
I thought I would post again to mention that the kids I babysit call one set of grandparents Gammy and Gampy. I hadn’t heard that one before.
I haven’t read all the other comments, so please forgive me if this is repetitive. My parents are called Granny & Grandpa (although this is often pronounced as Grappa by my kids). My in-laws chose to be Gramps & Gram-mum (although she sometimes spells it Grandmum).
When I grew up, we had a Grandma & Grandpa and a Nanny & Pop. My husband had Granddad & Grandmum and Grandma & Grandpa.
LOVE all this! :)
I had Grandpa (passed) and his wife Nanny – my brother and I are the youngest grandkids so they were already “named”.
Baba was my great-grandmother (Ukrainian) and another great was Little Gran, so called because she was so teeny!
Then we have Grandad (he’s Ukrainian) and his wife woulda been Gran – only when I was little she’d come in and say, “Hey, hey, guys!” I thus began calling her Ay-hay, and she spelled it Ahea so that’s who she is to most everyone now!
Names I’ve heard and liked–Grumps, Grannygreat, Nanagran or maybe it was Nanagram. Cute!!
My siblings and I refer to our maternal grandmother as “Gran”. This is my favourite grandmother name – it is simple and has loads of personality. Our great grandmothers were always “Nana first name”, which I think is also quite lovely.
I became a grandmother at 41 — and although I was ready for the role, I definitely didn’t care for the title. So I became “Nana” (and for many years “Neena” — and sometimes still — when my first grandchild changed Nana to Neena). Now I’m about to become a great-grandmother (even though I’m far too young for that milestone ;-) ) and will continue on as Nana to a new generation, even as the grandchild generation continues to grow (great-granddaughter due this month; grandson due in April). My oldest daughter is about to become a grandmother at 43, and even though I said I’d share the title Nana with her, she’s decided to be “Grammy”.
My sister’s grandkids call her “Marmee”, a name she found in “Little Women”.
To the last anon poster, I call my own mom Marmee!
My mom wanted to be Meme but my daughter decided that she would be Mimi. So we have Papa and Mimi on my side and Grandma and Gapa on the other.
I have heard Gigi and Ginger used, both of which are cute without being too grandma- y
My granddaughter calls me Obi which is short for the Japanese word for grandmother Obaasan. I am not Japanese but my granddaughter has two other grandmothers (Granny and Grandma)and I wanted something unique. I spent some time in Japan as a teen and remembered the word. I also thought that it would be relatively easy to say. My husband is Pop Pop.
Being filipina, I call my Grandma “Lola”. I think it’s sweet. Like a name but not.