Punjabi Kinship Terms: A Family Relationship Guide
Punjabi is spoken by around 33 million people in Indian Punjab, and many more in the diaspora, and like most Indian languages it names relatives far more precisely than English does. Where English says “uncle”, Punjabi usually wants to know which uncle. Here are the everyday terms, written in the Gurmukhi script with their English meanings.
How Punjabi kinship works
Punjabi belongs to the Indo-Aryan kinship system. Unlike the Dravidian languages of the south, it does not sort cousins into cross and parallel: all of your cousins are cousin-brothers and cousin-sisters. What Punjabi marks instead is which side of the family a relative comes from — your father's father and your mother's father get different words — and, on the father's side, whether an uncle is older or younger than your father. Side and seniority carry the weight that cross and parallel carry in the south.
Parents and grandparents
- Father: ਪਿਤਾ
- Mother: ਮਾਂ
- Father's father: ਦਾਦਾ
- Mother's father: ਨਾਨਾ
- Father's mother: ਦਾਦੀ
- Mother's mother: ਨਾਨੀ
Build your family tree — free
Kinidhi's tree maker works out the correct Punjabi term for every relative as you add them — elder or younger, paternal or maternal, all of it. No sign-up, nothing leaves your device, and you can download the finished tree as an image.
Open the free tree maker →Father's brothers and sisters
- Father's elder brother: ਤਾਇਆ
- Father's younger brother: ਚਾਚਾ
- Elder uncle's wife: ਤਾਈ
- Younger uncle's wife: ਚਾਚੀ
- Father's sister: ਭੂਆ
- Her husband: ਫੁੱਫੜ
Mother's brothers and sisters
- Mother's brother: ਮਾਮਾ
- His wife: ਮਾਮੀ
- Mother's elder sister: ਮਾਸੀ
- Mother's younger sister: ਮਾਸੀ
- Mother's sister's husband: ਮਾਸੜ
Brothers and sisters
- Elder brother: ਵੱਡਾ ਭਰਾ
- Younger brother: ਛੋਟਾ ਭਰਾ
- Elder sister: ਵੱਡੀ ਭੈਣ
- Younger sister: ਛੋਟੀ ਭੈਣ
Seniority is marked in the word itself: an elder brother and a younger brother are simply different words, so age is never ambiguous the way it is with the English “brother”.
Children and grandchildren
- Son: ਪੁੱਤਰ
- Daughter: ਧੀ
- Grandson: ਪੋਤਾ
- Granddaughter: ਪੋਤੀ
In-laws and marriage
- Husband: ਪਤੀ
- Wife: ਪਤਨੀ
- Father-in-law: ਸਹੁਰਾ
- Mother-in-law: ਸੱਸ
- Brother's wife: ਭਰਜਾਈ
- Sister's husband: ਜੀਜਾ
- Son's wife: ਨੂੰਹ
- Daughter's husband: ਜਵਾਈ
Build your family tree — free
Kinidhi's tree maker works out the correct Punjabi term for every relative as you add them — elder or younger, paternal or maternal, all of it. No sign-up, nothing leaves your device, and you can download the finished tree as an image.
Open the free tree maker →A note on regional variation
These are the common, widely understood forms. Punjabi kinship words vary by region, community and family, and many households use affectionate local variants that will not appear here — all of them equally correct. If your family says it differently, your family is right. We would genuinely like to hear about it: tell us and we will fold corrections into both this guide and the app.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ਦਾਦਾ and ਨਾਨਾ in Punjabi?
ਦਾਦਾ is your father's father and ਨਾਨਾ is your mother's father. Punjabi keeps the two sides of the family lexically separate, so the word itself tells you which side a grandparent belongs to — something English needs an extra word to do.
Does Punjabi distinguish cross and parallel cousins?
No. Unlike the Dravidian languages of south India, Punjabi treats all cousins alike — as cousin-brothers and cousin-sisters. What it marks instead is the side of the family, and on the father's side whether an uncle is older or younger than your father.