My brother and I both agree that the term “Uncle” is just plain boring, and does not sound all that appealing. I also am not all that interested in ever being an “Aunt.” I have tried to do research on other endearing terms aunt and uncle alternatives (and not foreign language names that mean “Uncle” and “Aunt”), but cannot seem to find anything.What do you call yourself if you are an “Aunt” or an “Uncle,” or what do you call your relatives who fit this role, but not this name? — Laura
It depends on the person really, so go with what ever you’re comfortable with. I go by my first name or by my nickname to almost everyone regardless of age because I believe that respect is conveyed best by tone rather than title. Our girls call our friends by title + modified first name because they like doing it that way. My best friend is now ‘Aunty Essey-Jay’ and her fiance is ‘Uncle Nymon’, my sister is Aunty Kitty, and my brother-in-law is ‘Uncle Markie’ which is very special to us as that was part of his childhood nickname that their (deceased) cousin gave him and he won’t let anyone else use it.
I’m “Tante”, the Norwegian word for Aunt. *:)
Maybe you brother would like hunkle like one of my freind’s neices calls him.
Aunts and uncles don’t necessarily need to be gender specific either. I have been “uncle Jess” for over 4 years now and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It all started when my now husband handed his sister’s day old daughter to me and said ” here, go see uncle Jessie, I mean auntie Jessie.” his sister and I just looked at each other and said ” nope, uncle it is”. My side still calls me aunt but there’s something to be said about being a lady uncle. I sort of love it. My husband and his sisters also have an uncle who is a woman so it has become this awesome generational family thing. Also, it’s pretty spectacular seeing what kids just come up with on their own and what sticks just on a weird fluke. The right name will find you.
It’s fairly common in my neck of the woods to call any close family or friend Aunty, considered almost a respect thing that the child/or parent considers you close enough to call you that. The godbabies used to call me Utty Jen when Aunty was too hard to pronounce, and now occasionally I get Aunty Bob, a nickname their Poua (maori for grandfather) gave me led to some confusion over my gender 🙂
I am Māori, from Taupo (Ngati Tūeharetoa) and we call grandfather Koro. I have never heard of Poua! What part of NZ is this from?
Our family has always just been a first name thing with Aunty and Uncle used if needed (ie my Aunty, Toni)
but when my sister had her daugher she thought it would be hilarious to get her to cally me by a very old child hood nickname – Pooh.
So I have been Aunty Pooh for over 6 years now and all the others kids of the family also cal me that every so often. All other aunts and uncles are simply called by their name or nick name (eg my husband is Gray man, not graham)
I fully intend for my sister to suffer karma and be an Aunty Sissy one day… but …
all in all – I think blood relatives are cool to be called by their names, Not people I know who are Aunty this or Uncle that are’nt blood rellies and are trying to make.concrete the relationship IMO
Well, my brother is “Moonie.” He came by this because my daughters middle name is Starshine, and he joked about being Moonshine. But, my daughter at a young age shortened it to Moonie. His wife is Nonna, which is the 3 year old equivalent for her name Donna. 🙂
Something fun would be A-name or U-name. Kind of like P-Diddy. My brother, who is husky and furry (not a dog), is known as my niece’s Fairy Godfather. My sister is sometimes called Auntie Favorite.
I prefer to be called Auntie Ann beacuse it makes me think of “Auntie Em! Auntie Em!”
My aunt (father’s sister) was my godmother, and her husband is a very tall, loud, broad and hairy (looong beard – think gandalf the grey) British professor. after she passed away, her husband – my uncle – wanted to take over that role (i was still only 10 at the time) and he became known as my ‘furry godmother’ this has still stuck to this day – even to the point that the name on his placecard at my wedding was ‘furry godmother’…
In Arabic, uncle is “Amo” (pronounced “ah-mo” or “uhm-o”) which is what our nephew calls my husband. Aunt is just auntie, which is boring. But our nephew said “Amo Jase” (uncle Jason) before he even said Mama! Easy for kids.
I have been struggling with this too. My entire generation on my dad’s side of the family is VERY socially conscious–lots of non-monogamous and LGB relationships going on. No gender identity differences in the family yet, but more than anything I would like a not-gender-specific thing that my (future) kids can call my brother/SIL as well as cousins in the same generation (growing up those cousins of my parents were aunt/uncle so and so, but once we were in high school that sort of got dropped or switched to “cousin so-and-so” when a describing relationship was required.)
I’m really struggling to find a term of endearment and respect that can be used for older family members outside of grandparents. Preferably two terms, so that we can differentiate between people of my generation and older ones or people who are technically unrelated such as my SIL’s parents who have been parents to me since middle school.
I agree with those saying the kids will make it up on their own. My cousin’s daughter calls my other cousins Aunt & Uncle, and I’m “Marybug”
My first niece was born 4 years ago & she started calling me “Meme” when she couldn’t pronounce my name, I loved it immediately. Now, it’s even more special to me because I’m a fulltime Meme of 3, basically acting as Mommy while helping my parents who are adopting all 3 kids. They have many Aunts & a few Uncles who are close friends and family members, and it’s a term of endearment & respect, but none of them are involved in the kids’ lives as I am. And when ever some super awesome ididot remarks that I’m “just an aunt” my niece reminds them, “No, that’s my Meme!”
For my niece, I requested I be called “Chuchie”. It is polish for aunt and while I am not polish, nor is the child, I love the way it sounds. Its a bit more personal. My husband goes by “Uncle B” for Brent. Chuchie has such a cute ring to it and it just seemed to fit perfectly!
My family mostly uses aunt/uncle or auntie or nina/nino. We have an “Aunt Ester” which sounds totally … aged. And we have “Auntie Nell” (for my sister, younger than me, without children, which was a nickname I created for her as a baby) and a “Knuckle Dane” just because my son couldn’t say “uncle” without the “n”. Both aunt/uncle are totally fine with their names. The “nino/nina” is usually reserved for god-parents, which isn’t religiously applicable to our family anymore.
Love this article! When my sister was pregnant with her first we decided that “Aunt” just wasn’t……right. So I decided the Yiddish “tanta” or “tantale” sounded much better and now both my sister and I are Tanta. In fact, my friends love it so much that my son has 3 Tantas now.
My son has a special name for my sister — I was trying to teach him “Auntie V” which he turned into TV lol.
You could always go with some kind of nickname. For example, my friend’s mom is Bugsy to her grandkids.
We have Aunts and Uncles (Aunt Sarah, Uncle August, etc) but we also use Miss and Mister for a lot of people, young and old. That said, these apply to our friends-family, as opposed to our blood-family. I think we’re still using aunt and uncle on that front, but it might be to send the message that our family is just a family, not full of steps- and halfs-.
Our kids refer to my step father-in-laws girlfriend (did you follow that?) as Lolly. Which is the shortened form of ‘Loud Lady’. (The adults created this before any of the kids could even talk) The origin was an inside joke for a while (she just has one of those voices) – but she now knows where it came from and thinks it’s funny 🙂
I personally like pet forms of names. My brother has always been ‘Joshy’ to little kids and me ‘Jily’. His daughter calls me Aunt Jily.
For us:
Bubba= Uncle
and we had a variety of bonus moms.
Mama Kelly, Mama Jane
I will ten thousandth this, but I’ve always called my aunts and uncles by their first names. I’ve talked to my sister about what her kids will call me someday and we haven’t decided on anything but it will probably be some derivative of what she called me growing up — sissy. So maybe like everyone else said — use a nickname or a name they called you when they were young.
When my fella was little, he couldn’t manage to say “Aunt Aleta” very well for his great aunt. His attempts eventually ended up being “TT (Tee TEE)” which is what nearly everyone, including me, his mom, and his grandmother calls her.
I’m known as Auntie-G or Chatcha (Anglo spelling of the Russian word for Aunt– actually spelled t-e-t-backwards r.)
I am Māori so it is a very high honour to be called Aunty or Uncle, especially when youre not blood related (as I think a previous commenter pointed out). I call my Uncle (my Mums brother) Uncle Weewee when I was a kid because I couldnt get my tongue around Stephen. My maternal grandparents are Nanny and Koro. My cousins grandfather wanted to be called Grandpops but when he was little, my cousin Robbie called him Bobops instead and it stuck! I love pet names and names stemming from kids mispronunciation ❤️❤️❤️
My niece calls me “dragon” since she was little cause that’s what she could form when she was told I was aunt Megan. Sometimes the best alternatives come from the kids themselves!
My niece calls me Mama T or my first name. She accidentally called me mama a few times and it just kinda stuck, we just added my first initial. My sister in law doesn’t mind it at all. My kids call their aunts and uncles by first names or nicknames they already had, before being aunts/uncles.
If any other nieces and nephews come along, I don’t know what they’ll call me. I’ve allways called my aunts and uncles ‘aunt firstname’ and ‘uncle firstname’.
The names that my children call my immediate family are . . .
My mom – “Nana”
My dad – “PawPaw”
My step-dad – “Papa”
I also have two younger sisters— one they call “Mimi”, and the other they call “Aunt B” (they use the initial of her first name)