If your grandkids call you Pop, and your wife Nanny, here’s the reassuring news straight away: you’re not old-fashioned, and you’re certainly not alone. According to research on Australian grandparent naming habits, you’re sitting comfortably in the mainstream, not drifting off into some outdated corner of family tradition.

What the research actually shows

A survey of 1,500 Australians, conducted by language learning company Preply, set out to map exactly what the nation calls its grandparents, and the results were surprisingly consistent. For grandmothers, “Nanna” came out on top nationally, followed closely by “Nan,” with “Granny” rounding out the top three. Together, those three names dominate in every single state and territory, bar one exception: the ACT, where “Nonna” – the Italian word for grandmother – takes the top spot, despite less than 3 per cent of Canberra’s population having Italian heritage. Nobody’s entirely sure why, though it’s a lovely reminder that these names don’t always follow the pattern you’d expect.

For grandfathers, “Granddad” leads nationally, but “Pop” holds its own as a genuinely popular alternative, particularly strong in the Northern Territory, where it’s the most common choice outright. So if you’re a Pop, you’re very much in step with a large and settled slice of the country, not out on your own.

Interestingly, the researchers noted that Australians, a nation famous for inventing slang for absolutely everything, actually show unusual restraint when it comes to what we call our grandparents. Compared to somewhere like the United States, where regional names splinter into dozens of variations from “Mamaw” to “PawPaw” to “Bubbe,” Australian families tend to cluster around a fairly narrow, traditional set of options.

Where the names actually come from

Perhaps the most interesting finding in similar international research is who actually decides what a grandchild will call you. One survey found that around 38 per cent of grandparents choose their own name, while close to 30 per cent leave the decision entirely up to the grandchildren themselves – which, amusingly, is exactly how names like “Gaga” or “Mimi” tend to come about, when a toddler’s early, garbled attempt at “Grandma” sticks permanently and affectionately for the rest of that person’s life. Parents make the call in roughly a quarter of families, often as the deciding tie-breaker between two sets of grandparents who might otherwise both end up being called the same thing.

That last point is genuinely common, and probably explains why so many families end up with a Grandma and a Nanna, or a Pop and a Granddad, under the one family tree – it’s less about tradition and more about practical necessity once you’ve got more than one set of grandparents to keep straight.

Is the world actually moving away from tradition?

Not as dramatically as you might expect, though there are a few genuine shifts worth knowing about.

The biggest and most talked-about trend is grandparents choosing something entirely different from the traditional options altogether – names like Gigi, Mimi, Grandy, Glam-ma, or Lola have been steadily gaining popularity, particularly among grandparents who feel that “Grandma” or “Grandpa” sound a little more formal, or a little more ageing, than they’d like. It’s less a rejection of the role and more a reflection of grandparents today often being younger, more active, and keen for a name that reflects that.

There’s also a smaller but real trend toward grandchildren simply using grandparents’ first names, the same way many families have moved toward first-name terms between parents and children more broadly. It remains a minority choice, but it’s out there.

And, of course, multicultural naming continues to enrich the picture enormously. Families with Italian heritage often use Nonna and Nonno, German families Oma and Opa, Spanish-speaking families Abuela and Abuelo, Greek families Yaya, Hawaiian families the gender-neutral Tutu, and Jewish families Bubbe – each carrying its own warmth, history and pronunciation quirks that “Grandma” and “Grandpa” simply don’t capture in the same way.

So, are Pop and Nanny still the norm?

In short: yes. The data suggests traditional names haven’t been dethroned so much as they’ve been joined by a growing, colourful crowd of alternatives. Nanna, Nan, Granny, Granddad and Pop remain the backbone of what Australian grandchildren call their grandparents, exactly as they have for generations. What’s changed isn’t so much the popularity of those names, but the amount of company they now keep – a wider, more personal, more culturally varied field of options sitting alongside the classics, rather than replacing them.

So if you’re a Pop with a Nanny by your side, rest easy. You’re not behind the times. You’re the mainstream, standing right where you’ve always stood, just with a lot more interesting company these days.