There are many different names for parents in English.  Some of the different names people (children and adults) use to refer to their parents are found in different regions of the English speaking world, for example in England is more common to call one’s mother, “mummy” or “mum”, than it is to do so in the United States.  Some of these different names that people call their parents are just personal preferences and not related to a particular country or region.

Below I have compiled a list of many different ways people say ‘mother’ and ‘father’ in English.  One interesting thing about these lists is that all of the ‘mother’ related words start with the letter ‘m’ like the word mother itself, but none of the ‘father’ related words start with the letter ‘f’ like the word father.  Take a look at these lists and see if any of these words are new to you.

Mother                                            Father
mom                                                 dad
mommy                                            daddy
mummy                                            duddy
mum                                                 pop or pops
mama (also spelled momma)          papa
ma (also spelled maw)                    dada
—                                                     pa (also spelled paw)
—                                                     old man (as in “my old man”)

Now, take a look at these words for grandmothers and grandfathers.  A lot of grandparents come up with their own special names for themselves that their grandchildren use.   So there are a lot more non-traditional names for grandparents in the English speaking world that aren’t part of these lists.

Grandmother: grandma, gram or grams, grammy, nana, ganny
Grandfather: grandpa, grampa or gramps, papa, pop or pops