If The Naming of Cats is a difficult thing then the naming of grandparents is an even greater challenge. Other grandparents in my family go by the following names: Mabi, Moeke, Vake, Mamilou, Papilou, Boma, Bompa, Oma and Opa. I don’t think my parents have quite made up their mind yet but for the moment we are using Granny and Grandad. I really like the Swedish Mormor and Morfar and another option, since they have just moved from Dublin, could be the Gaelic Maime€ and Daide€. They may wish to consult this list for further inspiration.
Amélie and Felix
Family adventures
Yes, gone are the days of growing up in the same country on the same street with all the people you ever knew, speaking the same language…..In our case: Noah is momentarily growing up in Holland, he is Swedish but speaks English and Dutch. For his Dutch set of grandparents it wasn’t really an issue. They’re just ‘oma’ and ‘opa’. For my parents the same question came up about being English ‘grandma’ and ‘grandad’ or Swedish ‘mormor’ and ‘morfar’. We settled on mormor (‘Mo-mo’) and morfar (‘Foo-Foo’) which is really sweet since Noah otherwise doesn’t speak Swedish. A friend of mine who is American has solved it in another clever way. Her son, who is American, growing up here in Holland with a Dutch dad, calls his grandmothers ‘Grandma Amsterdam’ and ‘Grandma America’, location being the guiding light. Whatever works…..
We zullen best afwachten wat Amélie van onze naam maakt als ze begint te spreken! Misschien komt er wel ieys heel origineel uit de bus.
mijn vader wilde graag een ouderwetse ‘Vava’ worden, maar Simon heeft daar inderdaad anders over beslist, en het is Wawa geworden, tot groot jolijt van de Wawa zelve, die nu ook voor alle andere kleinkinderen Wawa is. En mijn moeder was Oma Lutgart, als onderscheid tov Oma Rita, maar omdat ze dat niet kon onthouden heeft Julia er ‘Oma Darling’ van gemaakt. (ze dacht dat het liedje ‘O my darling Clementine’ over de oma ging…) Lief he!