'Grandude': America's Most Common Grandparent Nicknames

What’s in a nickname? Usually it’s expressing some form of endearment, though that’s not always the case, as anyone known as Booger or Stinky will tell you. For grandparents, it’s usually whatever happens to catch the ear of their grandchildren. Increasingly, old stalwarts like Grandma and Grandpa are losing ground to other names. Like Grandude.

Recently, as HuffPost reports, language tutor site Preply polled 1500 people in the U.S. asking about how grandparents are referred to in their households. Because Grandma and Grandpa is so pervasive, Preply eliminated them as choices in the survey.

For grandmothers, Nana scored the most votes, followed by Grammy, Granny, and Gran. For grandfathers, Papa was the most popular, with Pop-pop, Papaw, and Pawpaw all receiving nods, too.

Owing to cultural variety, some states went in another direction. Abuela (Spanish for grandmother) is a popular choice in Texas and New Mexico; Bubbe gets a workout in New Jersey; Mawmaw is tossed around in Alabama, Indiana, and Ohio.

Preply also looked at Google Trends to see which trendy nicknames have gotten increasingly popular. Gigi and Momo are rising for grandmothers, while Poppy and Grandude are favored by some.

No matter what you call your grandparents, they’ll probably have some Werther’s Original candies waiting for you.