Genealogy Chat

I only had one living female grandparent left by the time I was born. She was called Nana.

When our children came along, one grandmother wanted to be called Nana, the other Grandma.

OH's grandmothers were alive when he was born. They were also differentiated as Nana and Grandma!

That's rather a sweeping generalisation...........

I'm English, and have never used the term 'Nan'

I addressed both of my grandmothers as 'grandma'.......and when speaking about them, added the surname for clarification

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nana

Medieval Latin nonna old woman]

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/26613/grandma-and-nan-origins-and-differences
Etymology
The word nan for grandma is a shortening of the word nana. Both of these words probably are child pronunciations of the word nanny. Etymonline describes this word as originating as a child's word for "female adult other than mother". This is why nanny is used as the word for a caretaker of children (since the 18th century) as well as a grandmother (since the early 20th century). Etymonline also notes that nanna is also a Greek word for aunt.
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"female adult other than mother" could originally apply to working families where the grandmother lived with them and helped out with child care

I think it is only rich people that can afford to hire a nanny. Most people rely on relatives to give a helping hand. ;-)

We would use Nan as a derivative of Nana - also spelt Nanna.

No - don't know where it comes from!

I always use correct titles when posting about relatives...Father, Grandfather, Grandmother etc.

In Scotland we refer to our Grandmother as Granny or Gran....but I notice that English people use "Nan". I used to think this was short for Aunt and still find it a bit confusing as a "Nanny" is a child carer in my book.

So where did "Nan" originate? (I'm not including Catherine Tates version which is IMO Vile)