Gran or Nan?

My favourite so far from our eldest GD is Granimal.

I'm a Nonna as decided by my step granddaughter. She already had a Nanny and Nana. When new baby sister arrived Nonna I stayed.

I chose to be Nana - however GS decided it should be Nana and Grandpa Bear as we have a much loved dog called BEN!!!! GS thought he was called Bear (and still does).

Grandma and Grandpa - decided by my DD

I chose to be Nana as my Mum and Mother in Law where both Granny followed by their christian name to my DS and DD. Both Grannies were very special and are still talked about a great deal by the family as a whole, so I chose Nana to be different and also partly because I thought it sounded more fun. My two Grans when growing up were Donkey Gran ( as she lived at Weston Super Mare where they have donkeys on the beach, and Piggy Gran (as she lived on a pig farm). Piggy Gran didn't really like her name !

My husband had a daughter before he met me. She is half Norwegian and lives in Copenhagen as her husband is Danish. In Scandinavian countries they are very logical and grandparents are called farmor, morfar, mormor, and farfar, ie mother's father, father's mother etc. As my little step-grandchildren already have two grand
mothers, their parents asked me what I would like to be called, so I said 'Nana' which is what I called my grandmother and my daughter called my mother.

In this age of disrupted families, our first DGCs have 4 grandmothers and 3 grandfathers. Nanny, Nana, Granny are all taken, I am left with Grandma; Like Posie I cannot imagine be loved as I loved my own Grandma, I shall just have to see. Meantime, I accidentally dropped the d when ordering "hand made with love by.." labels for my sewing/knitting efforts!

The only grandchildren I see know me as Nana. My daughter said they already have two Grandmas and Nana means Grandma.

My own grandparents were (paternally) a very autocratic couple known as Grandma and Grandfather. When visiting for afternoon tea etc., we had to sit quietly and only speak when spoken to. We would comply as we received half-a-crown when we left, not that I am mercenary or anything....! Thus the Grandma/pa connotation were too great to consider.

Maternally, I had Scots grandparents and they were Nana and Grandpa.

When my own turn came, I wanted to be different as to me Nana/Grandma were people I had known and I just couldn't 'be' them.

A friend who had lost her own grown-up child kindly came up with the name Grammy (my husband is Grampsy - often changed to Grumpsy!) and this has stuck... up to now.

My eldest grandson shortened our grand-parental names a few months ago (he is a grown-up eleven and felt too babyish calling out 'Grammy' etc), and we are now GM and GP (Grandmother/Grandfather).

Well, it is to the point!

It's all very much a matter of personal preference. My DGS isn't old enough to call me anything yet, but when he does really don't want to be a Nan or Nanny - though many years ago I did call one of my grandmothers Nan and the other Grandma (South London).

Happy with Grandma, Gran, or Granny or variants. Like idea of Nonna but might sound a tad pretentious in a sadly very non-Italian family!

I'm Granny so all my grandchildren have a Grandma as well. Isn't Nana/ Nanny more northern?

Im just 'grnadma' but would love to be 'nanna' but im not having much luck trying to change.

I fancied myself a Nonna too, townie, but realised that Nana isn't actually much different, so settled for the non-pretentious! My own grandmother, who was quite posh, insisted on being called Mother by children and grandchildren alike. That sounds very autocratic, but she was a lovely grandmother.

My mother was grandma to our children and my mother-in-law granny. Later Granny told us she'd always wanted to be grandma - she was Nan to her other grandchildren and absolutely hated being call that. I'm Nonna to my grandsons. They are half Italian and as their other Nonna is in Italy and don't have the opportunity to see much of her, I thought it would be nice to have an English and Italian Nonna. My husband is Nonno.

My husband is Nonno, I am Granny. I chose my name from the available options as I don't like any of the others and my girls called my mother Grandma, so I felt I didn't want to take her place. The other GPs are Grandma and Gramps. My own girls called the other set Nonno and Nonna.

I'm gran to my one, and for the moment, only grandson. My mum was gran to my boys, my MiL was granny. As my DiL's mother died when DiL was very young, I have no competition, sadly. It was a toss up between gran or granny but as said DDGS is now saying Gwan, then Gwan it is.
Incidentally, why only DiL? I love my DiL to bits and would rather refer to her as DDiL.
Also, I'd like to say how much I enjoy Gransnet, it's great to know that other Gran's have the same rants as I do��.

Oops! (Smile)

I'm mamma to our almost 3yr old GS Grandma to our 10yr old GS and nothing yet to our 7mth old GS My DH is Jawjaw to the 3yr old and granda to the 10yr old. Granda seems to be a Cumbrian word. I had a wonderful grandma and my mum was a wonderful grandma to our children so I think it's an honour to be the same as them My MIL was nanna to ours as she had older GC but I always thought it sounded soppy!

I'm known as Nina and my husband is called Pop, thats what he called
his gandparents. I wonder if anyone else is called Nina?

As in my username, I'm Mamie (pronounced mah-mee) and hubby is Papy. These are common French names for gran and grandpa. I have spoken French to the kids since they were born (I don't see them enough for them to be bilingual but I persevere) so the French names seemed an obvious choice. Papy does not speak French but he still likes his name, he's Scottish so it's like pappy, mine's like mammy (which are common in Scotland).

leurMamie - I just had to comment as your name jumped out at me!
My mother's name was Mary but she was always known as Mamie (pronounced Mayme).
Too late I wondered how this came about (other Gransnetters: if you are curious about something, ask a question of someone who may not be here much longer, now. When they're gone, they're gone!!).
Unfortunately, towards the end of her life my mother had carers, most of whom just couldn't pronounce Mamie and called her Mammy, which, understandably infuriated my mother no end!
At least I have learnt something new today but knew I should have paid more attention in French vocab!

I am Grandma which was what my own much loved maternal grandmother was known by so I chose to be called by it.
My paternal grandmother was Grandma Surname.
When my first DGC was starting to talk she called me Marma but now at 23 she calls me Grandma.
One of my granddaughters who is 19 sometimes calls me Grams.
My great grandson is too young yet to call me anything but my own great grandmother was Nanna.
My two sons called my mother Grandma and my MIL was Nanna.

SIL and I refused to be Grandma to our grandkids as it was our MIL's name in the family, added to the surname. She was a one-off and we didn't want that title. So we are granny and nana respectively and our DH's are Gramps and Grandpa. Our DIL's parents are Grandad and Nannie so there is no confusion but as someone else said it's the love that matters and we all get that in overloads!

Should be 'bucketloads'.

My mother wanted to be Grandma, but the nearest my eldest daughter could get in saying it was Nana! Therefore I chose to be Nana to my own grandchildren. The two eldest have shortened it to Nan. My step grandchildren call me Emmy as my first name begins with M!