What do the British call their grandparents? Whether it’s ‘Nan’, ‘Gran’, ‘Granny’, ‘Grandpa’, ‘Grandad’, ‘Grampa’, or any variation on those, the English language has a wide variety of different terms for grandparents. In Britain, it’s influenced by region, social class and family tradition, and changes over time – our ancestors in the 20th and 19th centuries almost certainly had different terms for their grandparents than our children do today.
In 2022, a survey of 2000 British adults from mobile phone design company emporia Telecom found that for British grandmothers, the top five names in order of popularity at a national level were Nan (33%), Grandma (32%), Nana (24%), Nanny (22%) and Granny (14%). Only one in ten used the term Gran.
The name Nan was by far the most popular for a grandmother in the English seaside cities of Liverpool (65%) and Brighton (51%). Half of Welsh grandmothers were also referred to affectionately as Nans, but Scots didn’t like the name at all - with only 8% of grandmothers in Glasgow and 6% in Edinburgh being identified as such.
The name Nan was by far the most popular for a grandmother in the English seaside cities of Liverpool and Brighton
Nan was even less used across the sea in Northern Ireland with a tiny 4% usage – where Granny was by far the most popular name (43%) followed by Nanny (39%). In comparison Granny was the most adored name for Scottish grandmothers with 45% of people in Edinburgh using it and 31% in Glasgow. Less than 10% of Scots used the name Nanny.
For grandfathers the most popular name nationwide by far was Grandad (68%). It was favoured in the north with the majority of grandfathers in Sheffield alone (96%) being known as a Grandad. In contrast only one in five Brits opted to use Grandpa (22%).
The survey also found that unique nicknames for grandmothers included Boo, Mimi and Nanan, and nicknames for grandfathers included Pa, Papa and Captain. People living in Cardiff and Plymouth were more likely to use a unique name for their grandfather and those in Nottingham, London and Leicester likewise for their grandmother.
In 2024 Preply, an online language course provider, analysed the most popular nicknames for 'grandmother' and 'grandfather', based on data from UK Reddit forums, Google searches and online books and articles. It found that the five most popular terms for women were Grandma, Granny, Nan, Nanny and Nana. The five most popular terms for men were Grandad, Grandpa/ Grampa, Papa, Grandfather and Granda.
There was also a wide variety of nicknames from other languages. For grandmothers, the Italian Nonna ranked 9th. Welsh heritage was also celebrated with Nain in 8th place and Mamgu at 10th, representing north and south variations of ‘grandmother’. The American Meemaw was in 11th place and the German Oma and the Spanish Abuela were tied at the 13th. For grandfathers, the German Opa was at number 11 and the Welsh Taid and Taidcu at 10th and 14th.
The survey also found that celebrities are influencing terms for grandparents in Britain. Lovey, used by the Kardashian/ Jenner family to refer to matriarch Kris Jenner, and Lalo, which Gwyneth Paltrow's children use to refer to their grandmother, also appeared.
