Is no one a grandmother anymore?

Seems like no woman with a grandchild, especially a woman in the forever-young Baby Boomer generation, wants to be called Grandmother Jones or Grandma Smith.

Sandy Marchal Diaz just didn't want to be called Me Maw or Maw Maw, names often used in Southern West Virginia.

Her older set of four grandchildren called her Grandma Sandy. But she drew the line when the younger set called her Maw Maw. "Please don't call me that," she pleaded.

"My daughter-in-law said, 'Guess you want to be called Goddess.' I said, 'That will do.' She told the kids, 'Call her Goddess; she's not going to answer to anything else.' It started out as a joke," recalled Diaz.

Diaz, 65, is a former Charleston Newspapers employee who divides her time between North Carolina and Charleston.

That younger set of grandchildren, now aged 12 through 18, still call her Goddess.

When the children were younger, she said, people would stop them in the street. "What is that child saying? Goddess?"

Then there was the elementary schoolteacher who finally asked one of the children: "Who is this Goddess you keep talking about?"

Diaz has gotten a lot of enjoyment out of her title, even using the e-mail handle "wvgoddess." "I think life ought to be fun," she said.

Among other popular non-"Grandmother" names are Gram, Grams, Grammie, Nana and Mimi.

Then there are foreign language substitutes for grandmother: Nonna (Italian), Oba (Japanese) Buddie (Yiddish), Litta (Spanish), YaYa (Greek) and Babcia (Polish).

Ruth Withrell's grandson Brent didn't call her anything for the first 18 months of his life. She baby-sat a lot for him at the time, usually driving to Morgantown once a month to watch him for the weekend while his father studied and his mother worked.

After one Friday-to-Sunday shift, Withrell put Brent down for a nap, and when his parents returned, she left for Charleston.

"He woke up and kept looking around saying 'Ging, Ging.' His parents didn't know what he was talking about until he saw a picture of me and pointed to me, saying 'Ging, Ging.'"

Is no one a grandmother anymore?

Seems like no woman with a grandchild, especially a woman in the forever-young Baby Boomer generation, wants to be called Grandmother Jones or Grandma Smith.

Sandy Marchal Diaz just didn't want to be called Me Maw or Maw Maw, names often used in Southern West Virginia.

Her older set of four grandchildren called her Grandma Sandy. But she drew the line when the younger set called her Maw Maw. "Please don't call me that," she pleaded.

"My daughter-in-law said, 'Guess you want to be called Goddess.' I said, 'That will do.' She told the kids, 'Call her Goddess; she's not going to answer to anything else.' It started out as a joke," recalled Diaz.

Diaz, 65, is a former Charleston Newspapers employee who divides her time between North Carolina and Charleston.

That younger set of grandchildren, now aged 12 through 18, still call her Goddess.

When the children were younger, she said, people would stop them in the street. "What is that child saying? Goddess?"

Then there was the elementary schoolteacher who finally asked one of the children: "Who is this Goddess you keep talking about?"

Diaz has gotten a lot of enjoyment out of her title, even using the e-mail handle "wvgoddess." "I think life ought to be fun," she said.

Among other popular non-"Grandmother" names are Gram, Grams, Grammie, Nana and Mimi.

Then there are foreign language substitutes for grandmother: Nonna (Italian), Oba (Japanese) Buddie (Yiddish), Litta (Spanish), YaYa (Greek) and Babcia (Polish).

Ruth Withrell's grandson Brent didn't call her anything for the first 18 months of his life. She baby-sat a lot for him at the time, usually driving to Morgantown once a month to watch him for the weekend while his father studied and his mother worked.

After one Friday-to-Sunday shift, Withrell put Brent down for a nap, and when his parents returned, she left for Charleston.

"He woke up and kept looking around saying 'Ging, Ging.' His parents didn't know what he was talking about until he saw a picture of me and pointed to me, saying 'Ging, Ging.'"

Thus, she became Granny Ging Ging to her other grandchildren, who had been calling her Granny.

When asked what she wanted her great-nieces and -nephews to call her, Withrell answered, "Let's honor Brent and call me Auntie Ging Ging."

Brent died five years ago at the age of 10.

Her granddaughter, Katie, was 2 at the time. "When she calls and says 'Hey, Ging Ging' in that deep, low voice - it sounds exactly like Brent."

Withrell said she has a cousin who is a great-grandmother and still doesn't want to be labeled Grandmother. "As far as I am concerned, these gray hairs have to be good for something. I love it when I hear someone called Grandmother or Granny."

However, Matt Thornhill, founder of the Virginia-based marketing research firm Boomer Project, was quoted in a recent Contra Costa Times (Calif.) article on the subject of the "grandboomer" generation.

"It used to be at age 60 you were old," Thornhill said. "This generation has gotten to that age and it's considered midlife. Boomers today, knowing - or thinking - they're going to live to be age 85 or 90 [say] 'I'm not old yet at 60. And I don't want to be called the name that signifies that I'm old.'"

Sarah Holroyd of Charleston didn't want to be called Grandmother or Grandma. So when her first grandchild was due, she stole a nickname. "I had a friend, Daisy Guthrie - just the dearest person in the world - and I asked her if I could steal her nickname. Her grandchildren called her GG."

Although woman may be more sensitive to the "grandmother" label, they aren't the only grandparent with nicknames.

Holroyd's husband, Fred, tried to teach his eldest grandchild to say "Grandfather." But the child continued to call him something no one understood. Finally, they realized the child was saying "B-bar." They have no idea why unless he was thinking of the head elephant in the children's book "Babar."

"I have five grandchildren, and the name has stuck," said Holroyd.

As a toddler, Emily Reeder of Vienna called her grandfather Hidaddy. Her parents realized that on every visit to the grandparents, Emily's mother would greet her father with "Hi, Daddy."

As for Rolf Tauscher of Poca, his muscle-bound arms earned the name Popeye from his eldest grandchild. To his pleasure, that's what his other grandchildren call him.

JoAnn Daley of Fort Hill didn't have a choice about what her grandchildren would call her. Her daughter had already decided on JoJo. She said she had some worries that her grandchildren would think she was clown.

Reach staff writer Rosalie Earle at ea...@wvgazette.com or 348-5115.