A question which pazzled me for a long time

In my family both grandmothers were hardly ever on the same room but of we need to talk with one specific grandma we would add her first name. For example if one grandma's name was Lily Johnson and the other was Patty May ( these were not my grandmothers' names I just made them up for the example). We would say Grandma Lily or Grandma Patty.

This is very easy if you think of the word "grandmother" or "grandma" as a title like "Mr.," "Mrs.," and "Ms." It is the title to show that they are a grandparent and that the gender is woman. Then we many times in English add the last name or surname to the title. For example: Grandma Smith if her name is Mary Smith or Grandma Jones if her name is maybe Susan Jones. We also sometimes use the first name instead of the last name depending on the Grandmother's wishes. Then the name for Mary Smith could be Grandma Mary or for Susan Jones it could be Grandma Susan. Usually the parents of the father or mother work this out if the name is the same. This is usually not a problem in our country since there are so many different names from so many countries. Now let us take the name Grandpa or Grandfather for the title of a man who is a grandparent. Maybe his given name is John Doe or Michael White. This is how we might address them: Grandpa Doe or Grandfather Doe if his name is John Doe. Grandpa White or Grandfather White if his name is Michael White. We can also use their first given name to make Grandpa John or Grandfather John for the man named John Doe. In the same manner we could use Grandpa Michael or Grandfather Michael for a man named Michael White. Many times people have favorite names as others have posted like nanna or papa. But the two paragraphs above is how we addressed grandparents for many years in the United States. A lot of the other forms have come along as our society has found it hard to accept that we get older or that we are getting old. There is a great emphasis on youth in the United States and very little emphasis on how important older people are to our society. A very sad thing to me. I hope this makes it a little clearer. I am not sure if I explained it in terms that would translate well to your language and understanding.

Many people differentiate between the two grandmothers by using different acceptable words such us Grandma, Nanny, Nanna, Nan, Granny etc or pet names. Grandfathers are also called by pet names such as Granddad, Poppy, Pop, Gramps, etc. Many couples, before the baby is born will ask their parents how they would like to be addressed, so that each set of grandparents is differentiated.

We were together with both grandmothers during christmas seasons. We call my mother's mother NANAY, and my father's mother, we call her LOLA. Lola means Grandmother and Nanay means Mother here in Philippines.

In our family, on the rare occasions that both were together, we referred to them by their family names - e.g., grandma Smith and grandma Jones. Lash

In our language we have different words, father's mother will be called as Nanamma and Mom's mother as Ammamma. So this is not a problem for us in my state in India. Only native English people will have to worry about it:) I am not related to it heheheh

Hi there, I am a grandmother and my son asked me how I want to be called when my little granddaughter was born. I told him I wanted to be called Grandma. Now, quite often the other grandmother and I are at the same gathering. So how to know when each of us are spoken to since she also wanted to be called Grandma?. Easy! My son calls me Mom, my daughter in law calls me by my first name, my little granddaughter calls me "grandma Y" and she calls the other grandmother "grandma D" when both grandmothers are present at the same time.

My kids had both grandmas and great grandmas so they were always called grandma then their first name. There also a grandpa and a great grandpa so we did the same thing. that was always their name even when we weren't together because we spent a lot of time with both sets and any time there was a conversation about one their first name was used along the grandma or grandpa.

Ive read all the other responses, and quite right that we will use the family name after the affectionate (grandma or grandad) to distinguish the person we wish to identify. We did it slightly differently. My mother is German and my father is English, so to distinguish which grandfather we were talking about we would call them by the town they came from, for instance my German grandfather was to known to us as Opi (German affection for Grandad) and Giessen (the town he lived in) so Opi Giessen was my mums dad, and my fathers dad was known as Grandpa Morcambe (a seaside town in England)

I had different names for each grandmother. My maternal grandmother had already been named "maw maw" by previous grandchildren. My father's mother didn't have any grandchildren prior to me, I was the first, so I came up with my own name for her. I call her Gran. Both my mom's parents are gone, but my grandparents are still very alive and healthy (thank god!). They come visit almost weekly to visit their GREAT grandchildren. It's so wonderful seeing 4 generations together. Amazing.

Here in the Philippines, the 'two grandmothers' would still be addressed using the same nickname as should be whether it is on your father or mother's side. It doesnt matter for as long as we show respect for both individuals. The Filipino culture is distinguished with hospitality though these nicknames are just used for respect and for hierarchal purposes.

In my family the grandmas were never in the same place at the same time, however we did differentiate them by calling my dad's mother "Grandma," and my mother's mother, "Grandmother."

Hello I come from India and in my language both grandmothers are called by the same name"Paatti" But when both are around we call them bu adding their name infront and then paatti . That is a new word for grandmom no? The language is Tamil

we call them both grandma. in the local dialect, we call them both "lola". if they are both in the same place, we call them "lola" plus the first name, ex. lola diana, lola britney, etc.