What do kids call their parents in UK?
There are many nicknames for parents. Young children sometimes call their mother mommy in US English or mummy in UK English, and they call their father daddy. Mama and papa are also used. These words are informal in US English, but old-fashioned in UK English.
The British typically use 'mum', and the Americans, 'mom'. But why is there such a difference in spelling and pronunciation when both nations speak the same language?
It is also an alternative spelling of mom, where it means mother. Mom is more common in American English, while mum is more common in British English. The charts below show the relative usage of mum vs. mom in both language communities.
Some families have their own rules that might differ from your family's rules. Most kids call their mom “Mom,” but some kids don't and that's OK. For example, for our family rules, our kids may occasionally call us “Denise” and “Mom Bethany.”
What you are hearing is not mum as in mother, but ma'am, contraction of madam, with a strongly reduced vowel. In British English, it is mostly used as a sign of repect for a woman of superior rank, say, in the military or police.
Mum is common throughout Britain, but particularly in the south. Mam is used in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and parts of northern England. Mom is most associated with American English.
Below is the UK transcription for 'dad': Modern IPA: dád. Traditional IPA: dæd.
| Scots | |
|---|---|
| parents | parentis |
| father | faither, faether, fayther, feyther, fether |
| mother | mither, midder |
| children | childer, bairns, bearns, weans, wanes, weanies |
The pronunciation, of course, will vary for Mam whether you're a Northumbrian or Geordie. This term of endearment for mother is also very common in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Ireland Ma is also frequently used instead of Mam. In Wales kids would call for their Mams.
So because kids are often to learn those words — and repeat them over and over in a process called reduplication — dads take on a variety of nicknames, like “dada,” “papa,” and even “baba,” which has origins in the Middle East, according to Dictionary.com.
What countries call dad papa?
Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Persian, Latin, Japanese, Korean, Hungarian, Hindi, German, French, Icelandic and Dutch all have a version of the word papa, or papi.
In addition to all the private and unique names we might have for our fathers, generically there are so many names we could choose from: pa, pops, pop, dad, daddy, papa, father and so on. Where have these names originated from?
| Scottish Gaelic (Gàidhlig) | |
|---|---|
| family | teaghlach (family/household) muinntir (family/relatives) clann (children) |
| parents | pàrantan |
| father | athair / dadaidh |
| mother | màthair / mamaidh |
