Nani Meaning: Grandma in Hindi, Nani vs Dadi and More
Nani means four different things depending on who is speaking. In Hindi and Urdu, nani (नानी / نانی) is your mother’s mother, the maternal grandmother; your father’s mother is dadi. In Hawaiian, nani means beautiful. In Japanese, nani (何) means what?. And Nani is a name, most famously Lilo’s big sister in Lilo & Stitch. If you came here because a grandchild calls someone Nani, the grandma sense is the one you want: Nani is Mom’s mom.
Nani is your mother’s mother
The Hindi word is नानी, written nānī with both vowels long, roughly NAH-nee. Wiktionary’s Hindi entry gives it one meaning, maternal grandmother, and lists its Urdu spelling, نانی, alongside. The same word with the same meaning turns up in Punjabi and Sindhi. Across that whole stretch of languages a child says Nani for the grandmother on the mother’s side, and nobody has to explain it.
The male partner word is nana (नाना), the maternal grandfather. So in a Hindi- or Urdu-speaking family, Mom’s parents are Nana and Nani.
You will often hear the word made warmer or more polite. Nani Ma is common, and so is the respectful -ji ending. Wiktionary’s English entry for nana even lists nanaji as a derived term. A three-year-old shouting across the park will use plain Nani.
Nani vs Dadi: which grandmother is which
This is the part that matters most if you are joining a family as a grandparent. Hindi and Urdu do not have one word for grandma. They have two, and the word tells you which side of the family she is on.
| Mother’s side | Father’s side | |
|---|---|---|
| Grandmother | Nani (नानी) | Dadi (दादी) |
| Grandfather | Nana (नाना) | Dada (दादा) |
Wiktionary gives दादी, dādī, as paternal grandmother, with दादा as the male form. So two grandmothers at one birthday party are not competing for one title. One is Nani and one is Dadi, and the child learns both before they can count.
I find that system enviable. English-speaking grandmothers spend a lot of energy deciding who gets to be Grandma, which is a whole post of its own: what to do when your grandma name is already taken. Plenty of languages solve it the Hindi way, with a separate word for each side. Mandarin’s Nai Nai and Lao Lao work the same way, which I go through in grandma in Chinese.
The Nana trap in mixed families
Here is the problem that catches families with one South Asian side and one English-speaking side.
In English, Nana is a grandmother. In Hindi and Urdu, Nana is a grandfather, specifically Mom’s dad. Wiktionary records both meanings under the English word nana: the grandmother sense, and a borrowing from Hindi or Urdu meaning one’s maternal grandfather. There is even a third: in Telugu-speaking families nana (from నాన్న) can mean father.
So if an American grandmother picks Nana and the other side of the family speaks Hindi, the child is being asked to use one word for a grandma on one side and a grandpa on the other. Children cope with that better than adults expect, but it is worth a conversation before the baby arrives, not after the first card is signed.
The fix is easy. If you are the English-speaking grandmother, choose something other than Nana: Grandma, Gran, Mimi, or a name of your own. If you are the South Asian grandmother on the father’s side, you are Dadi, not Nani. Using Nani would put you on the wrong side of the family.
The other meanings of nani
These are the reasons the search results look so muddled.
Hawaiian: beautiful. The Wehewehe Hawaiian dictionaries give nani in Pukui and Elbert as “beauty, glory, splendor; beautiful, pretty, glorious, splendid,” plus a second sense, “beautiful flower.” It also works as an exclamation, as in nani ka maikaʻi, “how fine.” None of that is a family word. The Hawaiian grandmother is tūtū, which has its own page: grandma in Hawaiian.
Japanese: what? Jisho’s entry for 何, read nani, gives what as its first meaning. As an interjection it means “what?; huh?” and shows surprise. That second use is why “nani” turns up in English as anime slang. The Japanese grandmother is obaachan, a different word entirely.
A few more, for completeness. In Nepali, नानी means a girl, a term of address for a young woman. In Swahili, nani means who?. And Mauritian Creole has nani for maternal grandmother, borrowed from Hindi. All three are in Wiktionary’s entry for nani.
A name. In Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, Nani Pelekai is Lilo’s older sister and legal guardian, the teenager raising her after their parents die. That is the Hawaiian nani, beautiful, used as a given name. If your grandchild’s Nani is a cartoon big sister, now you know where she comes from.
Should you choose Nani as your grandma name?
If your family has a Hindi-, Urdu- or Punjabi-speaking side and you are the mother’s mother, yes. The name is already yours, and it comes with a built-in partner for Grandpa.
If you have no South Asian connection and simply like the sound, think it through. Nani reads like a soft cousin of Nana, and in a lot of American families it will pass that way. But anyone in your grandchild’s life who speaks Hindi or Urdu will hear “mother’s mother,” and if you are the father’s mother they will hear a mistake. That is the same advice I give about every heritage name in my grandma names in different languages guide. Use the word your family has a claim to, and use it correctly.
Last, a teacher’s note. Nani is built from the sounds babies make first, which is why it travels so well. A child who can say “nana” can say “nani” with no extra work.
FAQ: nani meaning
What does Nani mean for grandma?
In Hindi and Urdu, Nani is the maternal grandmother, your mother’s mother. Your father’s mother is Dadi.
Is Nani mom’s mom or dad’s mom?
Mom’s mom. Dad’s mom is Dadi. The matching grandfathers are Nana (mother’s father) and Dada (father’s father).
What is the difference between Nani and Nana?
In Hindi and Urdu, Nani is the maternal grandmother and Nana is the maternal grandfather. In English, Nana is a grandmother. That clash is why mixed families sometimes end up with two different people called Nana.
Does nani mean beautiful?
In Hawaiian, yes. Pukui and Elbert’s dictionary defines it as beauty, glory and splendor, and as the adjective beautiful or pretty. It is not a Hawaiian word for grandmother.
Why do people say “nani” when they are surprised?
It comes from Japanese 何, which means “what,” and as an interjection means “what?” or “huh?”. English picked it up through anime.
