What Name Do You Call Your Grandmother?


While I was writing Monday's blog post, the idea for this blog post came to m: what name do you call your grandmother? (Okay, this repetition of the title was not a deliberate Nollywood-like move, I promise).


Being that we all grew up in different parts of Nigeria (and the world), I don't assume we all call our grandmothers the same name.  So, I am curious.  Please leave a comment with your special name for your grandmother.

As for me, I called my maternal grandmother (she has passed away), Grandma.  On the other hand, I call (she's still alive) my paternal grandmother, Mama, flavored with a thick Yoruba accent.  An audio clip would have illustrated this point beautifully.  Moving on ....

Here are a few examples of names for grandmothers that I could think of:


  • Mama
  • Iya Agba
  • Iya __________ (insert name of local town here e.g. Oshogbo, Ibadan)
  • Mama mi l'eko (if you laughed at this one, then you must have watched the series in the '90s)
  • Grandma

One thing I am sure of is this: None of you calls your grandmother by her first name e.g. Alice (Who born you? I would say you had an overdose of "liver" to pull that off)  I hope ….

*Image Credit

I called my paternal grandma Iya Ago (her area) or grandma Ago, she was not read. My maternal g.ma on the other hand is well read, lived in Ghana for a while , so she is more exposed. Sometimes, i call her Aunty (one of her names) or just plain Grandma.

HoneyDame

Mbuya or Gogo. Im Zimbabwean

chuwechuwe

Dhaga in ewe language and Nana (this could go for both male and females grannies) in the Twi language in Ghana.

priscy

Gosh, I'm so embarrassed right now, but I will confess. I call my maternal grandmother Ma'ami, as short form of Mama mi. Then I call my paternal grandmother Mummy Badagry, cos she lived in Badagry. These were the names every one in the family called all of them, irrespective of whether we were children or grandchildren.

@ilola

I called my grandma (maternal) Iya agba/Mommy Molete (she was resident in molete) and Paternal Granpa baba agba/Baba agugu (he was resident in Agugu :D

Toin

I call my Maternal grandma, 'Mama Agba, that's what we all call her, she is my only grandparent.

Jemima

I'm Igbo so it was "Mma" but not like mma for beauty but with a.... I need to use accents to explain it lol

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