GRANDPARENTS: Pennlive.com shared the following report ahead of National Grandparents Day, which is Sunday.
From “granny” to “nana,” there are plenty of ways one may affectionately call their grandparents. But for Pennsylvanians, one way is the way of the majority.
Preply — which matches “online tutors from across the globe with learners” — wondered how grandparent nicknames differed in each state, being a language education company and all.
Their curiosity — as well as the fact that National Grandparent Day is right around the corner on Sunday — prompted them to conduct and publish a study which first sent out a survey to 1,500 people across the country. After each respondent’s answers to the survey’s questions were submitted, final results were calculated and assessed.
“Pop-pop” and “Oma” — the German word for “grandmother” — were the dominant grandparent nicknames in Pennsylvania, with New Mexico being the only other state to claim the latter as well.
Nationally, however, “Nana” was the most-used nickname for grandmas in particular. On the grandfather side of things, that would be “Papa.”
There were plenty of outliers depending on the state, however, speaking to the vastness and diversity of this country’s ethnicity: Just like Pennsylvania’s “Oma,” those in Massachusetts opt to call their grandfathers “Dedushka” — the English’s Russian equivalent — while states like Nevada and California go for “Abuelo.”
“Abuela” is similarly used in Florida for grandmas, and New Jersey can boast being the only state to say “Bubbe.”
The study also found how nearly half of respondents would confide things to their grandparents over their own parents, and 68 percent would prefer to spend more time with the former as well.