Grandma in Swedish: Mormor, Farmor and Norway's Bestemor
Grandma in Swedish depends on which side of the family she is on. Your mother’s mother is mormor (MOOR-moor), literally “mother-mother,” and your father’s mother is farmor (FAR-moor), “father-mother.” Swedish has no everyday word that covers both. Grandma in Norwegian is bestemor (BES-teh-moor), which works for either grandmother, although Norwegian also uses mormor and farmor when it wants to be precise. Danish does the same with bedstemor. Grandpa follows the pattern: morfar and farfar.
Mormor and farmor: the most literal grandma names there are
I call these wonderfully literal in my grandma names in different languages guide, and they are. Wiktionary’s Swedish entries break them down without any fuss: mormor is mor + mor, “a maternal grandmother,” and farmor is far + mor, “a paternal grandmother.” The grandfathers are built the same way, morfar and farfar.
So a Swedish child never has to work out which Grandma is which. The name tells you. It’s the same problem Korean solves with a prefix, adding oe- for the mother’s side (my grandma in Korean post has that one), except Swedish builds it straight into the word.
The mor in mormor is the old word for mother. Wiktionary’s entry for mor gives the Swedish pronunciation as /muːr/, which is where “MOOR” comes from, and notes that on its own mor is now “slightly old-fashioned or solemn,” with mamma the everyday word. Inside mormor and farmor, though, it is as everyday as it gets.
The formal versions, mormoder and farmoder, are listed as uncommon. You will meet them in old documents more than in kitchens.
Swedish grandchildren work the same way
Once you see the pattern, you see it everywhere. Wiktionary’s entry for barnbarn, the Swedish word for grandchild, gives it as barn + barn, child-child. It lists two more precise forms: dotterbarn, a daughter’s child, and sonbarn, a son’s child.
Great-grandmothers stack up the same way. Wiktionary lists gammelmormor, built from gammel- (old) and mormor, and points to the fully literal mormorsmor and farmorsmor alongside it. I find that oddly comforting. Nobody in a Swedish family is ever confused about who anyone is.
Grandma in Norwegian: bestemor, “best mother”
Norwegian has both systems. Mormor and farmor exist in Norwegian with exactly the Swedish meanings. But Norwegian also has bestemor, which Wiktionary defines as “a grandmother; the mother of one’s parent” and notes that, “unlike farmor and mormor, bestemor does not specify whether the grandmother is paternal or maternal.”
The name is the loveliest thing about it. Wiktionary traces bestemor to beste, “best; dear,” which was once used as an affectionate form of address for relatives and friends, plus mor. It compares Middle Low German beste moder, “literally ‘best mother’.” It also notes that Swedish once had a parallel dialect form, bästa mor, but that it is not the ordinary modern word. Modern Swedish kept mormor and farmor; Norway kept both.
A few Norwegian words built on bestemor are worth knowing, all from that same Wiktionary entry:
- Bestemors lov, “grandmother’s law”: the principle of emphasising a person’s good qualities and playing down the bad. Thirty-one years of teaching second grade, and I had been running on bestemors lov the whole time without a name for it.
- Bestemorsdalt: a child who follows their grandmother everywhere. Every family has one.
- Bestemorsstykke: help a grandmother gives a grandchild.
- Bonusbestemor: a step-grandmother, or a grandparent’s new partner. I like “bonus” far better than “step,” and my step-grandma names post has more ways to handle that title.
And one for a smile: Wiktionary records that in Norwegian Nynorsk, children may pronounce mormor as something like “moom-moo.” The grown-ups’ word is longer. The baby’s version is the one that sticks.
The grandfather is bestefar, and a great-grandmother is oldemor.
Grandma in Danish: bedstemor
Danish has bedstemor, the same “best mother” idea with Danish spelling. Wiktionary defines bedstemor as “grandmother (mother of someone’s parent)” and lists bedstemoder as the fuller form. The d is soft, and Wiktionary’s pronunciation sits close to “BES-tuh-mor.”
Danish also uses mormor and farmor for the two sides. Wiktionary’s Danish entry for mormor glosses it as “maternal grandmother,” from mor + mor. The Danish great-grandmother is oldemor, as in Norwegian, and a grandchild is a barnebarn.
If you know German, you will notice none of these sound like Oma. The German branch went its own way, and I cover it in German grandma names.
Choosing Mormor, Farmor or Bestemor as your grandma name
If your family has Swedish, Norwegian or Danish roots, these names are yours, and they come with a built-in answer to the two-grandmothers question. If you are the mother’s mother, Mormor is simply correct, and nobody else can claim it.
That is also the one thing to get right before you announce it. Mormor and Farmor are not interchangeable. A paternal grandmother who calls herself Mormor because she likes the sound has, in Swedish, given herself the other grandmother’s title. Bestemor is the safer choice if you want a Scandinavian name and are not sure which side you count as, because it covers both.
For a baby, Mormor and Farmor are both easier than they look. The repeated mor gives a toddler a sound to hold on to, and I would not be surprised if your grandchild trims it to something shorter, as the Nynorsk “moom-moo” suggests.
FAQ: grandma in Swedish and Norwegian
How do you say grandma in Swedish?
Mormor for your mother’s mother and farmor for your father’s mother. Swedish has no common single word for both.
How do you say grandma in Norwegian?
Bestemor, which covers either grandmother. Norwegian also uses mormor and farmor to say which side.
What does bestemor mean?
It comes from beste, “best; dear,” plus mor, mother, and is often translated as “best mother.”
What is grandma in Danish?
Bedstemor, or mormor and farmor for the two sides.
What is grandpa in Swedish?
Morfar for your mother’s father and farfar for your father’s father. In Norwegian he can also be bestefar.
