“Eu sou essa.” It’s Portuguese for “I am that one.”

Essa: It’s my grandmother name, now that I have a grandbaby.

Grandmother names basic or cute

How many of us want to be Grandma, Granny or Nana? When I hear those grandmother names, I think of someone much older than me. Someone with gray hair, an apron and a plate of cookies. Neither of my grandmothers matched that description! Nor did either grandmother to my children. It’s just the picture I have in my head associated with those words.

So when I learned I was going to be a grandmother, I wasn’t sure I wanted that title. I was excited and happy, and I’m OK saying I’m a grandmother. But I’m not sure I want to be called that.

My daughter said we could come up with a cute grandma name for me. I have some friends and family who have chosen grandmother names that allude to grandparenting without the full-on title: Little g, for a friend who prefers to spell her first name with a lowercase d; Granita for a grandmother whose name is Anita; Grandmomma; GG; Gma; Bubby (or Bubbie), which is Yiddish.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted, until I started learning Portuguese.

Origins of my grandmother nickname

It started last summer. I was at the lake with my aunt, cousin and her family. My cousin’s little girl has warmed up to me during our time together. (Because I don’t see them very often, the kids are a bit shy starting out.) During dinner, she announced she had to go potty — they were in the final stages of potty training when such an announcement means you move immediately to action.

My cousin started to help her down from her chair, encouraging her and praising her.

“No!” she said to her mom. “I want …” — and here she paused and pointed at me — “that one!”

It was as if she couldn’t recall my name in the moment, but she was sure I was the one who should help her.

So I did, picking up the encouragement and praise while her surprised mom just grinned.

Apparently, if you have to go potty, I am that one.

It was sweet, though. At that time, I felt like my cousin’s kids were the closest I’d get to grandkids for a while, so I was thrilled to be chosen as “that one.”

Portuguese plays into grandma name

However, “that one” isn’t a great nickname for a grandmother — or really anyone.

When my daughter told me she was pregnant, I began thinking about grandmother names.

And then, while studying Portuguese, I learned “essa” is a feminine singular word for “that” and sometimes is used as “that one is.” For example, “that one’s the best” translates to “essa é a melhor.”

I thought to myself that I liked that — essa — as a grandma nickname.

When I moved to Portugal, I realized most s sounds are “sh” not “ess.” So “essa” would be pronounced “eh-shah.” Considering how they shorten words, it might just be “shah.”

And that’s how Essa became my grandmother name. It really has nothing to do with grandparenting, but it means something to me.

My new grandson may decide to call me something else entirely when he starts talking. And that will be OK, too. It’s just a name. As long as I am “that one” who is chosen.

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Be a Better Writer Tip

Searching for meaning

As part of this column, I did a Google search for grandmother names. Maybe more interesting than the actual search results were the words people choose to search.

I use a free program called Keywords Everywhere. It is installed on my Google Chrome browser. Each time I do a search, Keywords Everywhere tells me how many other people have searched for that search term — or keyword — in the past month. This information is helpful if you are writing content that is to be optimized for search engines. You want to write about what people are looking for, or no one will ever see your stuff.

Would you believe that 12,100 people search for “grandmother names” each month on Google? “Grandfather names” nets only 3,600. “Hippie grandma names” gets 1,000 searches, followed by “Irish grandmother names” at 880 and “hipster grandma names” at 720.

Do you see how the language changes even from one search term to another? The hippie and hipster references use “grandma” not “grandmother,” but the overall and Irish selections use the full term.

It reminds me that language carries through in so many aspects of our existence. Simply writing about names for grandmothers causes me to think about how we use language and the terms we use to search for meaning.