By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — When Avrome David Goldberg of Little Rock, Arkansas died at the age of 93 in 2018, his local obituary noted that “Dave” — as he was called by everyone who knew him — was called ”Daddy Dave” by his two grandchildren Emma and Maya when they were kids.
This naming tradition reminded me of my own childhood in Springfield, Massachusetts in the 1950s and 60s. We Bloom children had a ”Daddy Dave” in our family, too. That was Dave Silverman, who became my father’s stepfather after his own father Joseph Bloom of Brooklyn, died of a heart attack at the age of 39 and Grandma Tillie remarried Mr. Silverman.
As for my biological grandparents, they were called “Grandpa Max” and “Grandma Bella” on the Epstein side of the family tree and “Grandma Tillie” on the Silverman side. But I never knew exactly why we called Daddy Dave “Daddy Dave” and I never asked anyone because it just seemed to be natural that that was his name. Even though he wasn’t my biological grandfather, he was one of the nicest adults I ever knew in my childhood and I loved calling him Daddy Dave.
Then the other day, after I came across Dave Goldberg’s obituary in his hometown newspaper, and noticing that his grandchildren called him Daddy Dave, I began to wonder where this naming tradition came from, substituting ”Daddy” for ”Grandpa.” Apparently other ethnic groups in America and Canada also utilize this naming style. I came across a YouTube video in my research about all this and discovered a Filipino family in California where one set of the grandparents were called ”Mommy-Anna” and ”Daddy-Ray.”
So then I began to wonder: who invented this naming style and when? Was it part of American culture or did families in other English-speaking countries such as as Australia or Britain or New Zealand or Canada also follow a similar pattern? Were these names given to grandparents who were not a child’s biological grandparents but were step-fathers and step-mothers in the families? Was it just a whim of some children to call their grandparents by such nicknames? Or did the parents teach the grandchildren to use terms such as Mommy-Anna and Daddy-Ray or Daddy Dave (as my parents taught me)?
So I am putting out this feeler so see if any of my readers here might have some other interesting stories about grandparents’ names to tell me in the comments section below (or in a personal email to me per below). Tell me. I am all ears.
Does that comic strip character ”Daddy Warbucks” play any part in all of this?
*
Bloom is a freelance writer based in Chiayi City, Taiwan. He may be contacted via dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com