I had two grandmothers – I guess we all do, right? My maternal grandmother was Grandma, and my paternal grandmother was Memere. Grandma was born in Ireland, and Memere was born in Vermont of French Canadian parents. I have only one vague memory of each of these women, as both died when I was still very young. But whenever my parents or older siblings spoke of them, these were the names they used.
I had always thought that memere was French for grandma, but when I tried googling it this morning, I learned the French word is grandmere. So where does memere come from? Did my parents make it up??? A little more online searching revealed that memere is only used by French Canadians, not by grandmas in France. Makes sense, since my memere was many generations removed from her family’s roots in France. My search also revealed that memere is a French Canadian slang term for a fat old lady. Ouch!
My sister-in-law is Mimi. My sister asks her grandchildren to call her Granny, and from the time they are born she carries them and sings softly into their ears, “I’m your granny, and I’m your favorite!” I grew up in the southeastern U.S., where most grandmas are called mamaw. In the Philippines, a grandma is a lola. I like the sound of that. I am Lola to many little ones here at IGSL, so I’m used to it already. To our kids from northwest Myanmar, I am Pipi. This week, with a new Nepali baby in the house, I am Hajouraama—quite a mouthful for a little mouth!
So how about you? What do you call your grandma? I need to know—I will be one in three more weeks!
2 comments:
In China, they call the father side grandmother, Nainai; the mother side is called laolao, sounds close to lola, I think. But for me, for both sides I dearly call them lola. Sounds sweet for you, Lola Theresa. Do you think Kuya James likes to be called Lolo? Sounds 'bagay' also.
Ruth
Hi Theresa,
I've been meaning to comment on your Grandma name... but have been real busy. I am in the Tokyo airport right now enroute to the USA. Anyway--- it was a real big deal to me to figure out what my first grandchild would call me- cuz I knew whatever the first one said- it would stick with all the rest of the grandkids. I even went on line and found a list of names for Grandma's and chose one. I thought that Gamma was so cute. After all that work of us figuring out the name that we wanted-- all of a sudden one day he came up with his own pronunciation that was so precious because it was his own. We still don't know how he got it-- but now it has stuck with all three grandkids. I am Nina and Mike is Papa. And they came up with the other set for Jons parents which is Poppy and Nana. It seems confusing-- but the kids keep us straight and in coversations go back and forth between the four of us all the time. I can't wait to find out what you end up with. You are gonna be such an awesome grandma- as you already have been to lots of Asian kids. Congrats and I'll be watching your blog for the announcement!
Post a Comment