AITA for calling my grandma by wrong name until she gets my name right?

A Reddit user shared their experience of calling their grandmother by the wrong name as a way to get back at her for consistently refusing to call them by their real name. Despite the user correcting her many times, the grandmother continued to use nicknames, including “Leo” and “Elliot,” instead of Emiliano.

The user finally decided to call their grandmother “Sandy” until she calls them by their real name. This led to a heated argument, and now the user is questioning if they were out of line. Read the original story below…

‘ AITA for calling my grandma by wrong name until she gets my name right?’

I’m (16m) half Mexican from my dad’s side and my mom’s side is Scottish. Ngl most of my mom’s family is high key r**ist and is been problems sometimes growing up. My grandma on my mom’s side never liked my dad and was happy after they divorced when I was 7.

My names Emiliano and my grandma always complained how hard she tried to change my parents minds and it’s a shame I got stuck with it. I’m actually proud of it. My dad told me about the revolutionary I was named after and their history.

But literally my entire life my grandma refuses to say it. She says it’s “too many syllables” (i got a cousin named Alexandria and they say the whole name) and always came up with her own names. She says Leo or once tried to get everyone to call me “Elliot” as a nickname for a while. Obvious my moms family was for it but my dad refused that cause it’s not my name.

Is always the same thing when I see them. She’ll call me Leo or whatever. Even when I correct her she says it’s not a big deal an keeps calling wrong name. I told my mom I don’t like it but she always say I’m just not gonna change her mind and no point in fighting it.

So I decided if she not gonna wanna call me by my actual name in not gonna call her grandma or say her right name. Is stupid I know but it’s bothering me more that she don’t care and all my other cousins she says their names fine, no nicknames. Her name is Susan so I decided to call her Sandy.

Tbh I was scared to say it but that look on her face was worth it lmao. It wasn’t surprise Pikachu face but it was close. She said that is not how I address her and it’s “grandma”. I told her nah I’mma call her sandy from now until she says my actual name. It got awkward.

My mom was serious and my gma got super red in the face. She started ranting about me being a f**king disrespectful child and this is all my dad influencing me again. My mom told me I need to apologize immediately but idk what gave me the balls to not do it. We ended up leaving there house early and my mom didn’t talk to me until we got home.

She say what I did was outta line and I don’t disrespect my elders ever. She wants me to apologize and I’m grounded until I do. Haven’t talked to my dad yet about this since it just happened but I wanted to ask if it was being an a**hole or was it okay for this situation to “insult my grandmother” ?

Check out how the community responded:

[Reddit User] −  Adults and the elderly don’t like it when they’re given a dose of their own medicine. NTA Emiliano is not a difficult name to pronounce and your grandmother’s not respecting you when she’s always mispronouncing it,

so why should you respect her? It’s a two-way street, and you don’t owe her respect just because she’s your grandmother. Good on you for sticking up for yourself and calling attention to her BS.

Jay-Dee-British −  Why not call her Abuela or Abuelita? Sort of malicious compliance-like? NTA btw but I get you don’t want to upset your mum.. ​. ​
ETA; ty u/highacidcontent for the evil cackle award. edit2: Jeez guys – the awards, y’all are loco, lol tyvm

batgod2k14 −  What would Emiliano Zapata do? Nta, respect is earned and names are important to identity. Que viva la raza.

germany1italy0 −  NTA, but you should respect your grand ma’s wishes and address her as abuela

Homer_04_13 −  NTA. She has had 16 years to learn your beautiful name and it’s not that she can’t. It’s a choice. Sometimes your self-respect will seem an affront to others. That’s their problem.

sygaila −  NTA. So it’s “disrespect to the elderly” when you call your grandmother by the wrong name once, but when she does the same thing to you for sixteen years it’s totally fine. Sure. Also, if I have the pronunciation right, your name is not that hard to pronounce either…

Ok-Beginning-5922 −  NTA, she has disrespected you your entire life, THAT is not acceptable. Tell your mother you will no longer be disrespected by your grandma, and you are disappointed she won’t stand up for you.

Her mind can be changed, you and your father AND your mother just have to call her out every time. Your father will back you on this, and your mother should too. You do not need to respect people who treat you with disrespect, and their age is irrelevant. Do not apologise, this is about basic respect which your grandma is not showing you.

Your mother is weak, and an enabler, for allowing this to continue; she should have shut this down when you were a child. I’d make it clear to her, if she was my mother, that I would have nothing to do with my grandma until this is corrected. You deserve to not have your name disrespected.

Misc-fluff −  NTA, you don’t want an nickname and it doesn’t even sound like she has ever tried to ask if there was a nickname you might like. But I get you people have mispronounced my names my whole life which is really, really annoying. I wish I had thought of misnaming someone in return.

Edit: Adults/Elders who don’t respect kids reasonable wishes are entitled and rude. Also maybe add Miss/Mrs. to the front of ‘Sandy’s’ name to be less rude and show you are the bigger person. XD Also talk to dad I sure think he might find this low key funny. I sure hope so!

eternal_entropy −  NTA. Asking to be called your proper name is not a hard thing. You’ve told your grandma this and she’s the one refusing. I would speak with your mum about this again and calmly explain to her in more detail how this makes you feel.

How you feel your grandma is disrespecting you and your heritage by refusing to use the name you’ve asked on countless occasions. Remind your mum that it’s hard to respect someone who doesn’t offer you the same back.

It’s two way street, which is broken and you have tried to rectify previously. Tell your mum you’ll happily apologise when your grandma agrees to start calling you by your actual name.

QDKeck −  NTA – being an elder doesn’t give someone the right to be disrespectful to you. Tell Sandy Reddit says hi. Good luck!

Do you think the user’s actions were justified, or was it disrespectful to treat his grandmother that way? How would you have handled the situation of your name being repeatedly mispronounced or ignored? Share your thoughts and opinions below!