Family Relationship Names in Hindi: What to Call Every Relative

Hindi has at least five words for what English calls "uncle": your father's elder brother is tau (ताऊ), his younger brother chacha (चाचा), your father's sister's husband phupha (फूफा), your mother's brother mama (मामा), and your mother's sister's husband mausa (मौसा). Every Hindi relationship name tells you which side of the family someone is on, whether they're older or younger, and whether they're related by blood or marriage. This guide lists them all — your own family, dadihal and nanihal, in-laws, and grandchildren down six generations — in Devanagari with romanization.

A few words to start with

• परिवार (parivar) — family
• रिश्ता or नाता (rishta, nata) — relation, relationship
• रिश्तेदार or सगे-संबंधी (rishtedar, sage-sambandhi) — a relative
• ददिहाल (dadihal) — your father's family; ननिहाल (nanihal) — your mother's parental family
• मायका (mayka) — a married woman's parental home; ससुराल (sasural) — the in-laws' home

Your own family

Pita and mata are the textbook words; at home most people say papa, babuji, maa or mummy. An elder brother is usually addressed as bhaiya and an elder sister as didi — rarely by name.

Dada-dadi and nana-nani

English has one "grandfather," and so does Nepali (hajurbuba on both sides). Hindi splits them: your father's parents are dada and dadi, your mother's are nana and nani. The split carries one generation further up, too — pardada on your father's side, parnana on your mother's.

Father's side (dadihal)

Tau and chacha differ in standing, not just in name — in many families tauji is treated with almost the same respect as your own father. A father's sister is bua whether she's older or younger than him.

Mother's side (nanihal)

Notice how the mother's side mirrors the father's side in reverse. Your father's brothers are split by age (tau / chacha) but your mother's brothers aren't — they're all mama. And your father's sisters aren't split by age (bua), while your mother's sisters often are: badi mausi for the elder, mausi for the younger.

Nephews and nieces

English has nephew and niece. Hindi asks who the parent is: a brother's children are bhatija / bhatiji, a sister's children are bhanja / bhanji.

Chachera, phuphera, mamera, mausera: cousins

This is the most elegant rule in Hindi kinship. English has one word for all eight of these — cousin — but Hindi builds each one from the aunt or uncle's own name: chacha → chachera, phupha → phuphera, mama → mamera, mausi → mausera. Hear the word and you know exactly which side of the family they come from. And because Hindi already calls them bhai and bahan, Indian English ends up with "cousin brother" and "cousin sister" — see our guide to that phrase.

In-laws (sasural)

A wife's parents are sasur and saas too. Nearly everything else in that table is just "brother-in-law" or "sister-in-law" in English — but in Hindi, your husband's elder brother (jeth) and younger brother (dewar) are two very different relationships. In traditional households a woman kept a veil and a formal distance from her jeth, while the dewar relationship is famously teasing and informal. A sister's husband is usually called jija; bahnoi is the more formal word for the same relationship.

Pota, nati, and six generations down

The dada / nana split shows up again one generation down: a son's children are pota / poti, a daughter's children are nati / natin. But only for that one generation — after that, names depend only on how far down: parpota → sarpota → chharpota → larpota. More on this in our grandchildren guide.

One trap if your family speaks both languages: in Nepali nati means any grandson, but in Hindi nati means specifically a daughter's son.

Step and adopted family

A stepmother is sauteli maa (सौतेली माँ) and a half-sister sauteli bahan (सौतेली बहन). Films and folk tales have given sautela a negative edge, so many families just use maa, papa, bhaiya or didi instead. Adoption is god lena (गोद लेना) in everyday speech — an adopted son is a god liya hua beta.

Why this matters for kids growing up abroad

Indian children raised in the US, UK or Canada often call every older relative "uncle" and "aunty." When the words go, the relationships blur with them — a child who can't tell chacha from mama doesn't really know which half of the family each one belongs to. Printing this list for the fridge is a good start. The hard part comes with a real family, where you eventually need to know what to call your mother's chachera bhai's wife.

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