What do you call your mother?

Squall Leonhart

I've seen this thread has most recently been done a few years ago, so we'll have a whole new batch of boards members, and since it's Mothers Day this weekend, it got me thinking, what do you call your mother?

I would associate 'mum' as being British, 'mom' with being American, but but both are widely used here so maybe I'm wrong!

I've met many people who call their mother (& father) by their first names and that just doesn't sit right with me (except perhaps in cases where a parent was absent for significant portions of said persons early life etc)

I call my mother 'mam'.

What do/did you call yours?

PirateShampoo

Dave

valoren

Mam.

Wanker Alert: Anyone who calls her 'Mom'

dashoonage

Mum


Your mother.....well that's a different story...

Twelve Bar Blues

I call my beloved mother 'mamma', or 'a mhamai'.
Started as a joke but stuck 😊

stimpson

Yore Ma

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Mom. Or mother if i was talking about her to my dad/someone else. Or if she wasn't paying attention then I'd call her by her name.

Speedwell

My mother is dead, but I called her Mom, or Mommy when I was under 30 I'm American, sure enough. My husband's mother, an Irishwoman of course, laughed at me for ten minutes when I called her "Mom". No "Mum" since she knows I don't use it, certainly not "auld doll", heh... she wants me to call her by her first name. First name!!1! I was brought up where you called an older woman "Miz Lastname" (or "Miz Firstname" if you were particularly close) and "ma'am" even if you were 60 and she was 80. I can't get my head around calling her by her unadorned first name!

(Note: That is indeed "Miz", not "Ms". I was raised in the Deep South.)

Zombienosh

MAAAAAAAAA

SEPT 23 1989

Too poor for Mum too posh for ma so we call her mam

gerrybbadd

My Atari Jaguar is a great cook

allibastor

Birther of the Legend!!!

Or mother of dragons if referring to my siblings

kneemos

The help.

osarusan

'whoever she was'

Speedwell

Twelve Bar Blues wrote: »

I call my beloved mother 'mamma', or 'a mhamai'.
Started as a joke but stuck 😊

A mhamai? Is that what my seven-year-old nephew calls my sister-in-law? Cool, I was wondering why he said it that way. (I'm a recently transplanted Yank; one of these days I will get around to learning the language of the land, I promise.)

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Whamie? It's Irish for mammy

Menas

Dutchess

DrumSteve

Ma?

duchalla

Mom, I've called her that for the last 40 odd years and I hope I'll be calling her that for as many more. 95% of the people I know refer to their mother as Mom, I think it goes back to a time when we spoke as gaeilge. Although I've one buddy who refers to his mother as The Mud and calls her Mud....

Toto Wolfcastle

Mom. No connection to America. It would have been chosen by my mother, who certainly wouldn't have chosen it as an American thing. It's quite commonly used in Cork and Kerry and has been for a long time.

Different parts of the country have different ways to refer to mothers but an awful lot of people seem to think that mam is the only one that's right.

JustShon

Normally: Mam

When I want something: Mammy

"Hi mammy, how are you? You know how you love me mammy?"

When she's not paying attention: Her given name

"Mam! Mam! Maaam! Mammy! Ma!"

*crickets*

"Mary!"

"What?!"

Malari

Mum when I was a kid. Momma or Mom since I was in my early teens.

AnonoBoy

She doesn't mind what I call as long as I don't call her early in the morning!

cormie

The mothership, ma head, mam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOLxQGLJouI

French_Girl

Mammy.

Although when I was a kid I would often pronounce it as "mummy". It stuck around as a joke and I still use it sometimes.

Shenshen

Mama

drake70

Mam, although for the life of me I can't get a Mother's Day card with "Mam" on it.

Wibbs

Toto Wolfcastle wrote: »

Mom. No connection to America. It would have been chosen by my mother, who certainly wouldn't have chosen it as an American thing. It's quite commonly used in Cork and Kerry and has been for a long time.

If you or anyone else can show me any Irish person referring to their mother as "mom" before say 1990 you can colour me beyond shocked. I certainly never heard it before then and if you hear it as Gaelige it's more of an ahh sound than the American Ohh.

Now let's say that it is a Cork and Kerry thing(though two older folks I know of that region, both native Irish speakers don't use it, though to be fair that may be a long term Dublin influence) there can be no denying that the wider usage is most certainly down to the spread of the mid atlantic drawl since the late 90's, particularly among younger women. Watch any box pops on Irish TV and said accent will be along shortly(even with that awful upward question inflection that is nowhere close to native). An accent that would have been laughed at, or at least commented upon before that time. I remember peers noting the accent with a woman we knew who was American and Billy Connelly joking about American "mom" was like "wow" upside down, a very different feel to the Scottish "mam" vibe(and something about getting an M tattooed on each arse cheek and bending over). It was a "foreign word" for us at the time.

And if anyone can find me a recording of any Irish person saying "mommy" before the mid 90's I'll buy a hat and eat it. They'd have been looked upon as daft as someone saying "bartender" after a weeks holiday in Florida.

As for older people using it? I know a woman in her early 80's, Dublin born and bred and far from "mom" was she raised that started using mom over mam(among other mid atlantisms), because her daughters and particularly her granddaughters were, so she picked it up from them.

Words and accents change and shift and that's great, but it's when reinvention of the past comes into it I do think "ah c'way outa that".

Duggy747

Mumsie Poo!

CaraMay

duchalla wrote: »

Mom, I've called her that for the last 40 odd years and I hope I'll be calling her that for as many more. 95% of the people I know refer to their mother as Mom, I think it goes back to a time when we spoke as gaeilge. Although I've one buddy who refers to his mother as The Mud and calls her Mud....

I think it's Mhaim if it's the Irish version.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I was born in 88, and that's our mother was mom from then.

maisiedaisy

Both my parents, who are in their 60s, refer to their mothers as Mom, and always have done as far as I know. And yes, we're from Cork my father's mother had a woman who used help her in the house, and she was knows as Mom 'insert her surname here' by my father and his brothers as well.

Myself and sibling refer to mom as mom, my cousins on one side used to always call her mom and I've noticed two of them have now switched to mum, while cousins on the other side refered to theirs as mam when we were younger, but have now also up scaled to mum!

Toto Wolfcastle

Wibbs wrote: »

If you or anyone else can show me any Irish person referring to their mother as "mom" before say 1990 you can colour me beyond shocked. I certainly never heard it before then and if you hear it as Gaelige it's more of an ahh sound than the American Ohh.

Now let's say that it is a Cork and Kerry thing(though two older folks I know of that region, both native Irish speakers don't use it, though to be fair that may be a long term Dublin influence) there can be no denying that the wider usage is most certainly down to the spread of the mid atlantic drawl since the late 90's, particularly among younger women. Watch any box pops on Irish TV and said accent will be along shortly(even with that awful upward question inflection that is nowhere close to native). An accent that would have been laughed at, or at least commented upon before that time. I remember peers noting the accent with a woman we knew who was American and Billy Connelly joking about American "mom" was like "wow" upside down, a very different feel to the Scottish "mam" vibe(and something about getting an M tattooed on each arse cheek and bending over). It was a "foreign word" for us at the time.

And if anyone can find me a recording of any Irish person saying "mommy" before the mid 90's I'll buy a hat and eat it. They'd have been looked upon as daft as someone saying "bartender" after a weeks holiday in Florida.

As for older people using it? I know a woman in her early 80's, Dublin born and bred and far from "mom" was she raised that started using mom over mam(among other mid atlantisms), because her daughters and particularly her granddaughters were, so she picked it up from them.

Words and accents change and shift and that's great, but it's when reinvention of the past comes into it I do think "ah c'way outa that".

I was born in 1985 and I definitely started talking before 1990.

Your Face

Call me Daddy

Speedwell

Your Face wrote: »

Call me Daddy

Sure, Mom, whatever makes you happy. Does Dad know?

Your Face

Speedwell wrote: »

Sure, Mom, whatever makes you happy. Does Dad know?

Maybe its two Daddies.

Lavinia

Mamma
or mammy



She died 6 ears ago but I know she is still with me...

Crunchienut

drake70 wrote: »

Mam, although for the life of me I can't get a Mother's Day card with "Mam" on it.

Dunnes Stores had some Irish made ones last week

take everything

Mater

Turtle_

Mum. Mum refers to her mum as Mam, or mammy when talking to her brother before he died. Dunno what my dad calls his mum.. Usually the only time she's referenced is my mum asking my dad "Did you phone your mother?"

Actually it was my mum who insisted that we call her "Mommy" or "mummy" when we were little and we got the heads bitten off us if "Ma" or "Mam" or "Mammy" was used. She reckons it sounds either common (in Dublin) or like a culchie. She's not wrong!

beach_walker

Wibbs wrote: »

if you hear it as Gaelige it's more of an ahh sound than the American Ohh.

I wouldn't agree with this. Plenty of friends from Conamara, whenever I'm visiting them it's most definitely closer to "Mom" sound than "Mam". Ditto for the pronunciation of "mhaimeo".

Jimoslimos

Some of those poll options need to be separated.

Mum and Mummy would be used by completely different social classes.

beach_walker

I can't imagine ever calling either of my parents by their given names.

Ruu

Mhamaí.

I call them by their names, as do my siblings.

I refer to them as Mum and Dad.

When I'm looking for something, they're Mummy and Daddy.

JustShon

beach_walker wrote: »

I can't imagine ever calling either of my parents by their given names.

I call my dad by his given name occasionally, mostly because he used to call his dad by his given name and said he saw it as a sign of respect. So in a strange twist, I call my dad by his given name in order to show respect.

jobbridge4life

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I was born in 88, and that's our mother was mom from then.

88 as well.

Grew up calling her Mommy, when I was trying to be grown up in my teen years I switched to Mom but I couldn't hack it so it went back to Mommy. Since then its sort devolved in to Maw-thi or Maw-ee.

I'd refer to her as my Mother to others.

Estrellita

Wibbs wrote: »

If you or anyone else can show me any Irish person referring to their mother as "mom" before say 1990 you can colour me beyond shocked.

I was born in the 70's and I called my Mother 'Mom' my whole life. A natural progression of speech, which my parents didn't try to 'correct'. It was not an attempt to introduce Americanisms to my vocabulary. We are all Irish, no American connection whatsoever, or any aspirations to be Americans.

My siblings are the same except one, I think he called her Mam. So regardless of whether we are good, or nice people, we are **** apparently. Seems like a rational assumption.

JustShon

Estrellita wrote: »

Seems like a rational assumption.

Welcome to boards.ie it's full of rational assumptions!

storker

Her first name. It's not a trendy thing, just the toddler next door had a funny way of pronouncing it which we started to use too as a joke. That that morphed into her real name, and it was impossible to go back to mam or mammy.

My daughters call her by her first name too, instead of a granny name, but their other grandmother is "nana".

They call my wife "mamma" or "mam" or "mom", though.

Wibbs

Estrellita wrote: »

So regardless of whether we are good, or nice people, we are **** apparently.

Huh? Where did I call anyone a wanker for using mom? Maybe I said wonkers.