semperfiona | Chosen name, round two (Reply)

Trying to figure out what I want to be called by the new grandbaby. It's difficult. I don't feel old enough to be Grandma, but on the other hand...when I was a kid, my grandfather's wife never wanted us to call her Grandma, so she was always Aunt Jeannie. But none of my cousins or my sister or I have ever really felt close to her, and I doubt whether any of them have been in touch with her at all since he died. I certainly haven't. I don't want to set up that kind of distance in a relationship that is already likely to be somewhat fraught due to the fragility of our connection with her mother.

Tammie and I have actually been talking about this on-and-off all weekend, looking up alternative endearments for one's grandmother, and trying them on for size. Tammie is leaning toward "GiGi"; of the list, the one I liked best was "MeiMei" (I have no idea how they spelled it; this spelling is Chinese for little sister which amuses me a bit), but none of them really fit me; they're from cultures I don't belong to, or sound more like something generated by the child than something comfortably presented by an adult. My family culture is pretty stuck on "Grandma", and I suspect that's what I'm going to end up choosing after all.