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Great Aunt or Grand Aunt?
There's a debate going on in my family at the moment. My grandmother's sister will have a huge birthday/family party this year because she's a huge fan of the numbers 9 and 5.
She was born on 9th September 1919 at 5AM and she'll be 95 this September. Her children have asked each of four generations from each branch of the family to contribute a small cake with an inscription.
The problem is that in my generation, we cousins can't agree on which term to use in a cake inscription: 'Great Aunt' or 'Grand Aunt'.
Some cousins and I support 'Great Aunt', but a bigger number of cousins and my siblings support 'Grand Aunt'. They argue that if she's a sibling of a grandparent, she's a grand aunt. If she were an aunt of the grandparent, she'd be a great-aunt.
While that does make sense, it's just too pedantic. We think 'Great Aunt' is a lot more common and that we should go with it. They reminded us that she's a retired copy editor. True. We've searched the net, but couldn't find the answer.
Can anyone offer a definitive answer? Opinions welcome, too. Thanks.
She was born on 9th September 1919 at 5AM and she'll be 95 this September. Her children have asked each of four generations from each branch of the family to contribute a small cake with an inscription.
The problem is that in my generation, we cousins can't agree on which term to use in a cake inscription: 'Great Aunt' or 'Grand Aunt'.
Some cousins and I support 'Great Aunt', but a bigger number of cousins and my siblings support 'Grand Aunt'. They argue that if she's a sibling of a grandparent, she's a grand aunt. If she were an aunt of the grandparent, she'd be a great-aunt.
While that does make sense, it's just too pedantic. We think 'Great Aunt' is a lot more common and that we should go with it. They reminded us that she's a retired copy editor. True. We've searched the net, but couldn't find the answer.
Can anyone offer a definitive answer? Opinions welcome, too. Thanks.
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I would go with whatever the 95 year old is most likely to be familiar with
Why not just say aunt? Surely she's not a great aunt to everyone in your branch of the fam?
However, I'd also just go with Aunt in the cake inscription (or Aunt or Aunty, or Auntie - whichever you usually call her, use that appellation). Depending on what her name is, you could explain it by saying there are nine letters in total, or four and five making nine, etc etc. Should keep her happy if she likes nine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM79Epw_cp8
I'm a great Auntie but all the people I'm an Auntie to just call me Auntie B or my name. I'm closer in age to most of my nieces and nephews than I am to my siblings.
When I think on it - my nieces and nephews just call me by my name but I'm Auntie to their kids.
When we talk about her, some of us refer her as Great Aunt and the rest opt for Grand Aunt. However, until your replies, we forgot that when we talk to her directly, we usually address her as 'Aunt [name]'.
Happy solution! Thanks for triggering that reminder. We still feel a bit stupid for forgetting something so simple.
Hypnodisc, thanks for the video. It's still a surprise to see that the correct term is Grand Aunt. Who knew?
Same here.
I think those are American terms though?
I'd never heard the term "Grand Aunt" before today.
Although I suppose it makes sense if you are going further back?
Great Grand Aunt is probably better than Great Great Aunt?