Mother and Father. Mom and Dad. Mommy and Daddy. Mama and Papa. Ma and Pop. We have many words and nicknames for our parents in the U.S. Naturally, the same is true in other parts of the world, too.
We asked HuffPost's Facebook followers from outside the U.S. to share the terms of endearment they use for "mom" and "dad" in their native languages and cultures.
We rounded up 19 charming and fascinating responses below.
1. "'Emme' for 'mommy' and 'issi' for 'daddy' in Estonian." ― Laura Linnap
2. "'Mami' or 'mamica' for 'mom' and 'ata' or 'ati' for 'dad' in Slovenian." ― Nadja Venema Bačun
3. "'Muttilein' (or 'mutti') and 'vatilein' (or 'vati') is what we grew up using in German." ― Steffanie Foster Gustafson
4. "'Ma' and 'baba' in Bengali." ― Arundhati Gupta
5. "'Mamma' for 'mom' and 'pappa' for 'dad' in South Africa (Afrikaans)." ― Nonhlanhla Zitha
6. "'Athair' is 'father' in the Irish language and 'máthair' is 'mother.'" ― Anna Noelle Feehan
7. "'Mama' for 'mom' and 'tata' for 'dad' in Polish." ― Lily Kopacz
8. "In Urdu, 'ammi' for 'mom' and 'abbu' or 'baba' for 'dad' or 'father.'" ― Rahila Ovais
9. "'Mana mu' is 'my mother' in Greek." ― Bree Arnold
10. "'Aai' ('mom') and 'baba' ('dad') in Marathi." ― Nandita Bhende
11. "'Mama' and 'tata' in Serbian." ― Nina Kolacaric
12. "'Mutti' or 'mami' is the German equivalent to 'mummy,' and for 'dad,' it's 'vati' or 'papa.'" ― Catarina Appollonia
13. "'Mami' and 'papi' in Spanish when the kids are small ― then 'amá' and 'apá.'" ― Diana Arevalo Rodriguez
14. "'Mama' and 'papa' in Dutch." ― Karlijn Valerie Sofie
15. "'Ima' for 'mom' and 'aba' for 'dad' in Hebrew." ― Yael Shechter-Kilbride
16. "In Brazil, it's 'pai' and 'mãe' and in the north and northeast parts of the country, 'painho' and 'mainha.'" ― Anna Gonçalez
17. "In South African slang, Mom: 'dimamzo,' 'olady,' 'magriza.' Dad: 'timer.'" ― Musa Bram Fischer
18. "'Mama' and 'papa' in Russian." ― Sophie Fisher
19. "'Tatay,' 'itay' or 'ama' for 'dad' and 'nanay,' 'inay' or 'ina' for 'mom' in the Philippines." ― Karol Hartung
Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
