Journal · 4 min read
Italian Grandma Names, and the Grandpa Names That Go With Them
What do Italians call their grandparents?
In Italian, a grandmother is nonna and a grandfather is nonno; together they're i nonni. The everyday pet names are nonnina and nonnino. In dialect, Venetian families say nona and nono, Sicilian families nanna and nannu, and Sardinian families jaja and jaju.
Italian grandma names in the dictionary
Italian grandma names all grow from one word, nonna, and each one has a grandpa to match. These are the forms Treccani's dictionary lists.
| Grandma | Grandpa | Roughly | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| nonna | nonno | NAWN-nah, NAWN-noh | The standard words |
| nonnina | nonnino | nawn-NEE-nah, nawn-NEE-noh | Little grandma, little grandpa: the everyday pet names |
| nonnetta | nonnetto | nawn-NET-tah, nawn-NET-toh | Another diminutive |
| nonnuccia | nonnuccio | nawn-NOO-chah, nawn-NOO-choh | An endearment, like dear old Grandma |
| bisnonna | bisnonno | beez-NAWN-nah, beez-NAWN-noh | Great-grandmother, great-grandfather |
| ava | avo | AH-vah, AH-voh | Literary. Gli avi means ancestors |
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- Nonna and nonno are what you call them, at any age.
- Nonnina and nonnino are the soft versions, for when a grandchild is being sweet.
- Together they're i nonni, the grandparents.
Source for this table: Treccani's Vocabolario, Italy's standard dictionary, under nonna and nonno.
Regional Italian grandparent names
Plenty of Italian families never said nonna at home. They spoke a regional language, and the grandparent words came from it.
| Region | Grandma | Grandpa | Recorded in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veneto | nona | nono | Boerio's Venetian dictionary, 1829 |
| Sicily | nanna | nannu | Wiktionary, citing Traina's Sicilian dictionary |
| Sardinia | jaja | jaju | Spano's Sardinian dictionary, 1851 |
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So a family that writes Nona with one n hasn't misspelled anything. That is the Venetian word. And a Sicilian family calling Grandma Nanna is using the Sicilian word, not a nickname. In Naples it stays nonna, with the last vowel faded: NAWN-nuh.
Boerio's Dizionario del dialetto veneziano is free to read on the Internet Archive.
What Italian-American families actually say
Usually Nonna and Nonno, the same words as in Italy. Both have crossed into English: Wiktionary lists them as informal words for a grandparent with Italian roots.
In English they tend to come out as NAW-nuh or NO-nuh, without the held double n. That's fine. The grandchild will settle it anyway.
If your family came from the Veneto, Sicily or Sardinia, the regional words above are your Italian grandpa names and grandma names too. They're worth keeping on purpose.
How to say Nonna and Nonno
Two things make it sound Italian. The o is open, closer to the aw in law. And the double n is held for a beat: NAWN, then nah.
In the pet forms the stress moves to the ending: nawn-NEE-nah. The respellings on this page are rough, so listen to a native speaker once before you commit.
Four Italian spellings that mean something else
01
Nono is ninth
In standard Italian, nono means ninth. With one n it's only grandpa in Venetian.
02
Nona is ninth too
Nona is the feminine of ninth in Italian. In Venetian it's grandma. Context does the rest.
03
Nanna is bedtime
In standard Italian, nanna is a child's word for sleep, as in fare la nanna. In Sicilian it's grandma. Same word, different island.
04
Avo isn't something you call anyone
Avo and ava are literary words for grandfather and grandmother. You'll see them in poems and family histories, not at the table.
Putting the name to use
A name chosen for a grandmother a few states away gets said on the phone and at holidays. Seeing it written down helps it stick.
The card at the top of this page came out of our builder. You can send a photo postcard with Nonna on the back, in a handwriting-style font you pick, and we print and mail it.
If you want a child to speak Italian with her nonna, a card won't do it. A weekend Italian class or calls held only in Italian will, and we sell neither.
Choosing both names at once? Start with names for grandparents as a pair.
The full lists for her side, from Mimi to Oma, are in grandma names.
His side, with grandpa in 29 languages, is in names for Grandpa.
Irish on the other side of the family? Here are Irish grandparent names, spelled the dictionary way.
Frequently asked questions
- What do Italians call their grandma?
- Nonna. The everyday pet names are nonnina and nonnetta, and nonnuccia is an endearment. In dialect it can be nona (Venetian), nanna (Sicilian) or jaja (Sardinian).
- What is Italian for grandpa?
- Nonno, with a double n. The pet name is nonnino. In Venetian it's nono, in Sicilian nannu and in Sardinian jaju.
- Is it Nona or Nonna?
- Both are right. Nonna is Italian. Nona, with one n, is the Venetian word for grandmother. In standard Italian, nona means ninth.
- What do Sicilians call their grandparents?
- Nanna for a grandmother and nannu for a grandfather. In standard Italian, nanna is a child's word for sleep, so the same word means something else in Rome.
- What is the Italian word for great-grandmother?
- Bisnonna, and bisnonno for great-grandfather. The prefix bis- adds a generation, like great- in English.
- How do you pronounce Nonna?
- Roughly NAWN-nah, with an open o and the double n held for a beat. In English it often comes out NAW-nuh or NO-nuh, which is fine.
