G2G: Do you say great-aunt or grand-aunt?

Question

I read on some genealogy sites that "grand-aunt" is correct but "great-aunt" is not.
I never heard anybody SAY grand-aunt in my whole life.
But all my aunts of that type were born in Britain or the Bahamas, so maybe that was correct over there.
I hear some people say ONT rather than aunt, which sounds so affected, the aunts would probably laugh at me.

Comments

Great question Victor!

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I'm in England, here we say great, never grand. We don't use the ant or ont sounds, we say ahnt/arnt (depending on the dialect - in England there are many local dialects) or we use auntie.

Answer 1

I SAY great aunt, but I WRITE grand aunt in genealogical reports.  My father's aunt (my great Aunt Ada) was the person who turned me on to genealogy.  All of my siblings called her, and still refer to her, as our great aunt.  On the Find A Grave page I created for her, I listed her as my Grand Aunt to be more genealogically correct. 

Here's the way it was explained to me:  We call out parents' parents our Grandparents, not our Great parents. The siblings of our Grandparents would be our Grand Aunts and Grand Uncles.  The siblings of our Great Grandparents would be our Great Grand Aunts and Great Grand Uncles.

That logical explanation aside, I still find it awkward to say Grand Aunt, so Euada Kline Rohme will forever remain my "Aunt Ada" and my great aunt.

Comments

Thanks. I'm glad to know which word you are supposed to use in writing. Lots of words are pronounced differently in various countries and regions.

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What a great and grand explanation, Star!  Such a simple way to remember.

I use great.  I pronounce Aunt as the insect.  Although, I had one "Auntie" who was actually my Grand-Aunt (sister of my grandmother).  Everyone in my husband's family was called Aunt or Uncle no matter their relation (other than grandparents) because it was a term of respect.  So, 3rd cousin Ed is Uncle Ed.

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I have relatives like that in my family, too, Kathy.  We always called my grandmother's favorite cousin Aunt Tiny, though technically she was my first cousin twice removed.  I'm glad that nobody ever tried to explain that to me when I was a child!

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It's a small world, isn't?
I had an Aunt Tiny, too.
But she was 6 feet tall and weighed so much she had to get a special bathroom scale.
When I was growing up in the Alabama and Florida, we used to call lots of people aunt and uncle that were not related to us, as a term of respect and familiarity.
When I was little, I took this too far when I would call strangers aunt and uncle in shops or on the bus.
You even called household helpers "aunt", if they were a lot older.
It never seemed polite to call an adult woman by her given name, so you would say Aunt or Miz.
I never knew exactly what Miz meant, Miss or Mrs., but it sounded polite.

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Thanks Star. I learned something new today. :-)

Answer 2

Greeting, some people same it one way other place say it another, it is in the eye of the beholder, it is just where you are, most cases great sound better, so that is what I use, but it is just a term of speech, that could be used either way.  all I can say is I hope the best with this issue on correctnes. Most people highly won't care one way or another.

Answer 3

Now I say great-aunt - with an "ont" sound.  I've never heard of grand-aunt.

Growing up as a child I called them Auntie using the "ant" sound.

I don't think there is a correct or incorrect way - it's regional.

Answer 4

I say great aunt. I say it like the insect, ant. My better half says it ONT.

Answer 5

I use great. The only time I have seen grand has been the relationships on the Ancestry site, but they switched them over to great about a year ago as well. I'm also one of those "ont" people. ;)

Comments

The way aunt is spelled, it looks like it should be pronounced ONT. I may switch over to saying ONT with new aunts, because it does sound more educated, doesn't it? But my old aunts in the Midwest are so used to hearing ANT that I would not want to upset them, at this point. I will try to be flexible. Some people actually say AANT to rhyme with ain't, but I have never pronounced it that way.

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Hahaha! I live in the Midwest as well and most do pronounce it like the insect. Mine comes from me being a smarty pants kid, with a bit of a tude and insistent that both pronunciations were correct. A few decades later and it's stuck. ;)

Answer 6

In personal relationships, I usually say great aunt, but also grand uncle (akin to grandfather, so to speak).  I don't know why,however.

 

David

Answer 7

I always say my great aunt

Answer 8

Great is more common in England, but most US produced software seems to use grand.

Answer 9

In The Netherlands it is "oud-tante" (old aunt) and "oud-oom" (old uncle).

Answer 10

Because I ask this question of myself all the time...

I totally avoid saying it or writing it.

She's my grandmother's/grandfather's sister

Answer 11

After I read an article which explained that what I'd always called my Great-Aunt or Great-Uncle was actually my Grand-Aunt or Grand-Uncle, I decided to avoid the term altogether, at least in writing.  Here, I follow the same procedure that Anne B does, and just say grandfather's sister or grandfather's brother.  I cannot bring myself to refer to my Grand Aunts and Uncles with the term Grand no matter how genealogically correct it is.