Lionel Richie talks about finding a name that fits

Like many new grandparents, the sound of ‘grandpa’ just didn’t ring true to Lionel Richie.  Or, apparently, to his daughter Nicole Richie, 26 — who welcomed daughter Harlow Winter Kate 3 months ago tomorrow.  The father-daughter duo hit the ASCAP awards last night where Lionel was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, and they revealed to Extra! the name they’ve chosen for Harlow to call Lionel.

I went to Nicole and said, ‘Grandpa,’ how does that sound? Does that fit me?’  She said, ‘Dad, that sounds old.’ So I kind of searched out … G-Pa sounds a lot better.  That’s my street name.

Lionel, 58, is clearly at ease in his new role, and has even been pitching in with the babysitting duties.  He recently helped Nicole’s boyfriend Joel Madden in caring for Harlow — who "slept the whole time," according to Nicole — and Lionel says that he was happy to assist.  He joked, however, that "it’s when the baby wakes up that I freak out."  In all seriousness, watching Nicole embrace motherhood — a state of being she describes as "beyond amazing" — has left Lionel, himself, amazed.

She went from, ‘Dad, I don’t care. Whatever you say.’ To ‘Wash your hands, Dad’ and ‘Be quiet Dad.’ It’s a whole new sound of the house.

Source:  Extra!

Comments

aww thats funny. And its nice that he helped Joel. They seem down to earth.

- Olivia on April 10th, 2008

My grandfather is so funny, on cards and stuff he writes “Love G-Dad” instead of GranDad.
He’s in his 70s but my sister and I think it’s cool

Any Grandparents on here want to share how they got their name?
My grandmother was supposed to be Nana, but we called her Nan-Nan for years! lol. Now it’s just Nan.

- Emma on April 10th, 2008

Ok, this is really weird… my son, who is now 2 1/2 calls my dad “G-Pa”, which my dad came up with because he didn’t like grandpa. He said it made him feel old. How strange! I guess he’s not the only one now.

- momtoone on April 10th, 2008

We’ve always called our Grandma “Grandma Nee Nee”. Ever since my older sister was really young and couldn’t say my grandmothers last name, so “Grandma Nee Nee” was born. Now my sisters children call her that. My nephew calls my mother “Grandma Sparky” because we had a dog named Sparky. Strange how things stick.

- emily on April 10th, 2008

You must admit, Lionel is a cool Grandpa, I mean G-Pa! It seems like Harlow has brought the entire family closer. Beautiful to see.

- chris on April 10th, 2008

My brothers’ kids each have four grandmothers – one maternal grandmother, one paternal grandmother, one paternal stepgrandmother, and the partner of their paternal grandmother. Each grandma got to pick what name she wants the kids to call her, but as the kids are learning to talk, they’re kind of picking their own names.

- JennB on April 10th, 2008

My grandparents are Grandmother and Grandad…or as he writes it DOGD (dear old grandad). People are really surprised that we called my grandmother, Grandmother as it sounds so formal. She originally wanted to be called “Mother” because she didn’t want to be “old” sounding. It stuck for awhile, my 2 older cousins called her mother, but it changed with me. I once asked my mum if Mother was really my mother and she explained to me that she was really my grandmother, so Grandmother it was. It’s funny cause my older cousin still calls her Mother (as does my aunt) but my younger cousin, my brother and I call her Grandmother.

My mum had already made it be know that she is going to be called “Annie” as she doesn’t want to be a Grandma, Grannie, Nana, etc. With my cousin, who my mum is a surrogate grandmother (my aunt is raising him, as my cousin – his mum – passed away) she has gotten him to call her Annie and I love it. It fits her.

I hope that my mother in law is called by her first name or a version of it, “Cee Cee” would be nice because then they would be on the same page, grandparent wise.

- Devon on April 10th, 2008

How Cute!

My maternal grandparents are Papa and Nenah (pronounced knee-gnaw). Nenah was supposed to be Nana but my oldest cousin said it wrong and it stuck!

My dad was supposed to be Grampy but my nephew couldn’t pronounce it and called him Grumpy and that stuck. It’s cute and it fits my dad

My mom didn’t want to be Granny (as that was her g-mother, my great g-mother, and no one will ever replace her), and she didn’t want to be Grandmother and we already have a Mammaw. So my mom picked Nini (pronounced knee-knee) … it is kind of based off her mother’s name (Nenah)

- Crystal on April 10th, 2008

Friends of our’s started calling their kids’ grandpa G-Pa… I think it’s cute!!

- Nicole on April 10th, 2008

My son calls my dad a few different names “Dat” or “datty” or GoPa” for my mother he always calls her “Bon”. He’s so funny!

- Lauren on April 10th, 2008

My husband’s parents are Mimi and Pop-pop. My parents are Grana and Grandude. We get lots of smiles, laughs and funny looks over Grandude, which was his choice of his name.

- Cordelia's Mommy on April 10th, 2008

my now 13 yr, old has always called my parents G-pa and G-ma.Thought grandma and grandpa made them sound old.

- gonyomom on April 11th, 2008

I was just reading this same article on People Magazine’s website, and they referred to Joel as Nicole’s “fiance’”. I’m confused, because I’m pretty sure they’re not engaged (Nicole even made it pretty clear that they don’t plan to get engaged or married all that soon in Harlow’s introduction article in People). Also, People seems to have done this totally out of the blue, as I think this is the first time they’ve ever said a word about Joel being Nicole’s fiance!

Perhaps they just forgot that they aren’t engaged, though? I can see where it would get hard to keep track after awhile!

- CelebBabyLover on April 11th, 2008

My cousins always called my Nana ‘Nana Bubbles’ because her cat’s name was Bubbles.

I also know someone who’s grand children call her Boomby because her garage door makes a boom boom noise when it closes. I think it is very funny!

- Bianca on April 11th, 2008

I think that it’s cool he wants to be called G-Pa! My newphew call my parents Mom-mom and Pop-pop and my B-I-L’s parents Grammy and Papa. I always called my grandmother either mom-mom or grandmom but with my stepdad’s parents they prefered Nana and Pop. My mom used to call my great-grandmom, momma. Everyone has their prefernce which is cool.

- Jacqui on April 11th, 2008