Mom, mamá or viejita (old lady) when I'm feeling brave. Sometimes when I'm feeling extra brave (and playful), I use her childhood nickname that she hates because it's funny.
this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2025
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"mem", which is west-frisian for mum. Other than that I don't really speak west-frisian, but words like mom/dad/grandma/grandpa all stayed in Frisian. Family also sometimes speaks Frisian to me, but unfortunately I forgot how to speak it at a young age and can only understand it.
Anyám
Anyukám
Iccsanyám
Maaam.... MAAAAAM!
Mom
Ma
Mameleh
Mutter
I call mine as little as possible. My life is so much better without her.
yeahhh i usually just use her birth name if I must refer to her at all. Some folks weren't meant to have kids and don they best to prove it.
I use “my mother” for the same effect, but she died when I was in my early 20s.
I sometimes wonder if we could have made things work, or if I could have figured out stuff for both of us (we know I had adhd from my dad, but I’m pretty sure the autism came from her, and that was a post-death discovery)
But then I remember how hard she was to live with and that I probably wouldn’t have grown the way I did.. so maybe I wouldn’t even know I’m autistic at ~40..? Idk, I wouldn’t be who I am today if she was still around though, that’s a certainty.
She never wanted kids. When I was 16 she told me all about how my sister was the product of marital rape and I was the planned companion for the rape baby she didn’t want.. cool… my life in context.
Well my sister fucking hates me and always has (because she was the golden child, first born to a woman in her 30s, hallelujah!), so that worked super well. We haven’t spoken in almost 20 years now, my sister and I. Born 11 months apart. Wish she’d just had an only child, tbh.
I got one good thing from her though: perspective. She clearly didn’t want kids and I know how that turned out when she had them, and I also don’t want kids, so whenever anyone pushed back on my choice to get my tubes tied in my mid 20s, I was like nope. “What if I regret not having them? Fine I regret lots of things I’ve chosen to do or not do, but what if I’m like my mom and regret having them? There’s no solution to that… And I know how it turns out..”
Norwegian: Mamma. It's the same general meaning as "mom". "Mommy" strikes me as a bit more childish, and I don't think we have an equivalent here.
Mommy is rather childish. I didn't call my mom that seriously after about 8.
I'm Norwegian and say «mor» (mother). My mom asked me to use that instead of «mamma» ("mom") when she thought it sounded childish.
You can also say «modern», but to my ear it's a little more harsh sounding. Maybe it's a dialect thing.
In English, I don't think many adults would normally say "mommy", but many adult Norwegians say «mamma».
So to me, at least, a closer match is mom=mamma and mother=mor and mommy has no Norwegian equivalent.
Interesting. In America, we also have "ma". I don't know who uses that one, but it's used in shows sometimes. We have far more creative names for grandparents.
I think ma may be the closest thing to Norwegian «modern» in the sense that it is more of a dialect/region difference than an adult/child thing. In my experience, ma is used more in the South and in rural dialects in the US. I've heard modern used more in Eastern dialects in Norway. Maybe more curiously, I've mostly heard modern used only in the sense of "my mom" (third person) but rarely to address them. Maybe others can chime in on their usage of it. Norwegian has a lot of regional variation.
Hadde venner i oppveksten som brukte mor og far. Litt for formelt for meg, så mamma og pappa, selv om begge er over 80 nå
Tror det også er litt dialekt-avhengig. Jeg ser for meg at Mor kanskje blir brukt i Bergen og enkelte steder på Oslos beste vestkant litt mer naturlig enn andre steder. Bak den nordnorske låvedøra der jeg ble født så brukes det ikke i noen som helst sammenheng.
Det var venner fra oslo vest og bærum. Det var ingen som brukte mor og far der jeg vokste opp heller, utenom om besteforeldre.
You must be my mom
Usually, just mama. There's a few nickname alternates that have piled up over the years, but mama sticks for whatever reason. She usually prefers it as well, so that works.
Strangely, my dad has two. Daddy and papa. I use them interchangeably, my sister sticks with daddy.
My kid calls their mom mommy or mom usually. Mommy when they're tired for sure though lol.
Used to be 妈妈, but eventually I just called her by her full name cause I'm tired of her toxicity and just went full "American rebellious teenager" mode with it. Its supposedly very rude because filial piety bullshit, but fuck that. I don't recognize this bitch as a "mother".
Mostly just Mom
Just mom
Yep. Unless I’m being dramatic, then it’s mother
It's always been mum and dad. My kids call me dad/daddy/dumb ass/fucker.
That took a sudden turn right there
The 10 year old has emotional regulation issues. Good kid but very volatile.
I call my mom "mum".
Don't shame people for calling their mothers "mommy" : it sounds so middle-school edgy.
Mãe.
I'm Brazilian.
I call her Mama and only refer to her as my mom when talking to people outside the family. Kids call me mom, momma, mama - it just depends. They never call me by my name and I never call my mom by hers - that would be super weird and would seem disrespectful.
My kids call me Mom, step kids call me by my first name.
Oh and sometimes mama, in Spanish.
móðir, madre, mah, a-máaaaa
(Not icelandic, but it sounds cool)
Mid-30s woman here, from western US. I call my mom any of the following, depending on mood/context:
- Mom
- Mommy
- Mama
- Ma (definitely can become Maaaaa at times)
- Uma
- Mother (usually in a jokingly stern tone)
- Her name (when she's being particularly deaf)
To her face, "Mum", but when referring to her indirectly it's usually, "my mother".
I remember asking if it was OK to stop calling her "Mummy" but I'm not sure how old I was at the time. Definitely under 10 though. Probably heard other kids of the same age calling their mothers "Mum" when they were being collected from school and figured I'd better act accordingly and do the same.
(The only people who use "Mom" here are folks in the West Midlands, I think. And American ex-pats, I guess, but that doesn't really count.)
My mother goes by mum or grannie, but my wife goes my mom, pronounced “mum”.
That’s because “mom” is a shortening of “mother” which is what she is, but “mum” is a shortening of “ma’am” which is a shortening of “madame” which means “my lady” and is what you call someone of a higher social class than you. And she wanted to get as far away from class hierarchy in the house as possible.
They’re both generally “my mother” when spoken of in the third person by me or my kids.
"Mum" is a shortening of "mummy" (or similar) which almost certainly came before "mother" (or its ancestor words) as a word for one's primary female caregiver if not also birth giver, on account of it being baby-talk that ancient parents naturally took to be a name bestowed by the child.
In languages descended from Proto-Indo-European, the -t(h)er suffix is a familial grammatical particle that has long since ceased being productive, and remains frozen in all daughter languages. Speaking of which, the -ter of "daughter" is the same particle.
That "mum", at least phonetically, is also an abbreviation of "ma'am" is a coincidence caused by dropping so many sounds from the original "ma dame" that it reverts to, well, mumbling, which isn't far off baby talk, all things considered.
FWIW, there are places in the world where "Mam" is a name given to mothers by their children, which is also rooted in baby-talk and also has no connection to the other pronunciation of "ma'am".
Ammu
Mamá (spanish, equivalent to mom)
I call my mom “mom”, but now that I have a kid I use her grandma name more frequently. Honestly it’s a little easier to call her that, I have some unresolved stuff and while we’re friendly the mom term is a little much. My daughter calls me “mommy”, but usually doesn’t enunciate so it’s “mah-ee” most of the time.
I call my mom Ma, too. My kids call me Ma or Mama. It's funny but we took in some stray cat brothers in one day and kept them. A couple months later I heard Maaa-aaaa Maaaama! But the kids were at school... The kittens had learned they could get my attention immediately by mimicking my kids and that first couple times I couldn't tell the difference. To this day their meow sounds like 'maaaa"
"Mutter" (= mother) which started as a joke thing because it sounds as formal in German as it does in English but it kinda stuck and now anything else would feel weird
Because of My Cousin Vinny, I know 'Ma' to be very New Jersey but I suppose it could be southern too.
A miserable cunt. Sorry, but I think balance is good and as much as most folk have decent moms, and I'm grateful for it, my mom is top 5 worst humans I've ever met. I hope your's is better.
Mom, mother as a (not really) joke.
I used to call her mama but now I mostly just use her name. My family is weird like that.
Mom or more often her name? A diminutive of her name. I like her name. I do not think she does.
I called my mother by her name. My oldest brother started it.
As a child, usually mother. As an adult, by her name.
"Ma!"
Also, it has to be shouted. As a kid—coming into the house from who-knows-what adventure where I destroyed an item of clothing—again. Or as an adult trying to reach her over the sound of Fox News with the volume up way too loud.
This is the way.