Grandma in Tagalog: What Lola Means and How to Use It

Grandma in Tagalog is lola (LOH-lah), and grandpa is lolo. Lola means the mother of either parent, so unlike Hindi or Chinese, Tagalog does not split grandmothers by side of the family. It also has a second meaning: a polite way to address any older woman, related or not. In practice most Filipino families say plain Lola, or Lola plus a first name when two grandmothers need telling apart. Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, grew out of Tagalog, so lola is the word you will hear in Filipino too.

What lola means

The clearest definition comes from Diksiyonaryo.ph, the online Filipino dictionary. It gives two senses for lóla:

1. ina ng ina o ng amá, “mother of the mother or of the father”;
2. magálang na tawag sa sinumang matandang babae, “a respectful term for any older woman.”

Lolo mirrors it exactly: the father of either parent, and a respectful word for any older man.

Two things follow. First, Lola is one word for both grandmothers, so a Filipino family meets the same “who gets to be Grandma” problem English families do. Second, the word is not private to the family. Your grandchild’s friends may call you Lola too, and in Filipino terms that is good manners, not over-familiarity.

Where the word comes from

Lola has a Spanish layer underneath it. Diksiyonaryo.ph tags lola with [Esp abuela], from the Spanish abuela, and lolo with [Esp abuelo]. Wiktionary’s Tagalog entry is more cautious. It calls lola possibly a colloquial clipping of abuela, or a female form of lolo shaped by Spanish grammatical gender. Both point the same way: toward Spanish, which left a good many family words in Tagalog.

That shared history is also why the Spanish word yaya can trip people up. In Spain it means a granny, but in the Philippines it means a nanny. I explain that in my Mexican grandma names post, where abuela and its diminutives get the full tour.

Wiktionary also lists older and regional synonyms for lola: impo, inda, and lelang. Diksiyonaryo.ph traces lelang to Chinese and glosses it as an old woman, with lelong for a man. You may hear Lelang in Filipino-Chinese families, and it is just as warm.

Lola plus a first name

Because Lola covers both sides of the family, the most common solution is to add something. Usually that is her first name or nickname (Lola Nena, Lola Cora). The child ends up with two Lolas and never mixes them up, the way children everywhere cope with two Grandmas.

The most famous example in the language is a storyteller. Diksiyonaryo.ph has an entry for Lola Basyang: sagisag panulat ni Severino Reyes sa kaniyang mga kuwentong pambatà, the pen name Severino Reyes used for his children’s stories. A whole shelf of children’s stories went out under a grandmother’s name, which I think says a lot about what a lola is for.

Compare Vietnamese, which builds the side of the family into the word itself (bà nội and bà ngoại). I walk through that in grandma in Vietnamese.

The words that go with Lola

If you are becoming a lola, or your grandchild has one, these are the words you will hear around her.

• Apo: grandchild. Wiktionary traces it to a Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word for grandparent and grandchild both. Diksiyonaryo.ph defines it as anak ng anak o ng pamangkin, a child’s child or a niece’s or nephew’s child.
• Maglola: Wiktionary defines it as “grandmother and grandchild,” the pair, built from mag- plus lola. There is no single English word for that pairing, and I wish there were.
• Apo sa tuhod: great-grandchild. Tuhod is the knee, so the phrase reads roughly “grandchild at the knee.” Wiktionary lists lola sa tuhod as a derived term of lola, built the same way, for the great-grandmother. If your family is getting a fourth generation, my great-grandma names post has the English-side options.
• Po and opo: the respect particle. Wiktionary says po “marks respect toward the person the speaker is addressing.” A grandchild talking to Lola will put it in nearly every sentence, and opo is the polite yes.
• Mano: the greeting. Diksiyonaryo.ph describes it as taking an elder’s hand and kissing it or touching it to the forehead “as a sign of respect.” Put it together with the particle above and you get the greeting a grandchild gives Lola at the door: “Mano po.”

Using Lola if your family is not Filipino

Lola has spread well beyond the Philippines. I hear it at the playground from families with no Filipino connection, partly because it is so easy for a baby to say: two open syllables and a repeated L.

My advice is the same as for every heritage name in my grandma names in different languages guide. If you have a Filipino family connection, by birth or by marriage, Lola is yours to use. If you are adopting it only for the sound, go ahead, but expect a Filipino in-law to hear a word that carries mano, po and a set of expectations about respect, and be ready to live up to it.

One practical note. If your grandchild’s other grandmother is the Filipino one, ask before you take Lola. Since the word covers both sides, she may assume it is hers, and she has the better claim.

FAQ: grandma in Tagalog

How do you say grandma in Tagalog?

Lola, pronounced LOH-lah. Grandpa is lolo. Both are used for either side of the family.

Is lola the same in Filipino and Tagalog?

Yes. Filipino, the national language, developed from Tagalog, and lola is the standard word in both.

Does lola come from Spanish?

Most likely. Diksiyonaryo.ph traces it to Spanish abuela and lolo to abuelo. Wiktionary calls that connection possible but not certain.

Can you call any older woman lola?

Yes. Diksiyonaryo.ph lists “a respectful term for any older woman” as the word’s second meaning, and that is how it is used.

What is great-grandma in Tagalog?

Lola sa tuhod, literally grandmother “at the knee.” A great-grandchild is apo sa tuhod.