In the car, December 1, 2016, this Grandma heard a radio commentator say that the term “Dad” is out as it makes the father more distant and today’s fathers want to be referred to by the “more nurturing” term, “PaPa.” Now I think I know why some of my grandfather friends like to be called “PaPa.” I know I I wanted to be called “grandma” but my first grandson called me “Mema,” which is what he could say at eighteen months, so Mema I became. I since found there were many “memas ” and “Mimis.” See this previous post on naming Grandma.
I always thought that is why babies could say “mama” and “dada” early, sounds they could make. I wanted to now know why the new trend and where all the terms originated.
There is an on line etymology dictionary, of course. “Ma” appears in many languages in literature around the 1570’s, considered the sound babies make when they are sucking. I do not make this up. Check this link.
I would expect “Ma” to date earlier, but maybe not in any writing? “MaMa” dates from 1707, “Mommy” from 1844, and “Mom” from 1867. The dictionary entry says “mom and pop” as the adjectival phrase dates from 1951! Mommy became favored when we Boomer grandmas became mothers!
The new modern dads wanting to be called what they consider to be a more nurturing term would be very surprised to find that “Dad” and “daddy” have been around since at least the 1500’s and probably date much older. Papa is a much newer word, first showing up in writings in the 1680’s and used mostly around 1870. It is not until almost a century later, until 1970, that “dad” gained popularity and mostly replaced “papa”.
There is a theory that it is us Boomers who, when we became parents in the 1970’s, wanted to be modern. We replaced what we considered old fashioned ” papa” with “daddy” and what we considered old fashioned “mama” with “mommy.” Makes sense. We are a huge population with a corresponding huge influence in society in every decade for many things. We didn’t research which terms were older or newer in history. We just decided what sounded cooler then. This Grandma finds it amusing that we reverted as grandparents to the terms we considered old fashioned as parents.
Now, the parents of our grandchildren are reverting back! It is cool to be old fashioned in their generation. Apparently, the “mama” trend preceded the “papa” trend for those who considered themselves cool and modern mothers last year. See this great blog post.
Wow! The reasons we went from the old terms to the new ones is for us Boomers to be modern, and now those terms are too modern for the next generation. The great article about the reasons why even admit that “PaPa” has referred to grandfathers, not fathers, until this new trend.
Now that the parents of our grandchildren have reclaimed what we discarded as parents as old-fashioned, for “new” terms to refer to us, can we Boomer grandparents claim “MomMom” and “DaDa?”
Joy,
Mema
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