People sometimes ask where the name Uncle Grandad came from.
The truth is, there was never one particular day.
No grand announcement.
No official moment.
It was something that slowly appeared, one conversation at a time.
It probably started because I had grandchildren and nieces and nephews around the same age.
When they were all together it could get a bit confusing.
I would call out one name and three kids would turn around.
Sometimes I mixed up who belonged to who.
Somewhere along the way someone decided that if I was an uncle and a grandad, then the obvious answer was…
Uncle Grandad
Someone would say it as a joke.
At first it was just a bit of family humour.
It was one of those names that sounded ridiculous enough to make everyone laugh.
The funny part was that it actually made sense.
I was an uncle to some of them.
I was a grandad to others.
Somewhere along the way the two titles merged together into one.
No one officially decided it.
It just kept popping up in conversations.
And every time someone said it, the name stuck a little bit more.
The name probably would have stayed a family joke if life hadn’t taken me to Brisbane for a while.
I moved up there and started working at a place called Careers Australia., Uncle Grandad is still here, they, sadly aren’t, but that is another story!
It was a call centre job, working with a team of people who quickly realised two things about me.
I liked telling stories.
And apparently I already had a strange nickname
At some point someone asked where the name came from.
So I told them the story about the grandkids, the nieces and nephews, and how the name had slowly appeared over time.
That should have been the end of it.
Instead, the opposite happened.
Before long people around the office started using it
Once a nickname escapes into a call centre team, there’s no getting it back.
The funny thing was, it didn’t feel strange.
It just seemed to fit.
By the time I finished working there, the name had followed me everywhere.
What started as a bit of family humour had become something people genuinely called me.
Somewhere along the way the name stopped being a joke.
It just became normal.
Family used it.
Friends used it.
Workmates used it.
If someone called out “Uncle Grandad”, I would turn around without even thinking about it.
The strange thing about nicknames is that they don’t ask permission.
They just settle in and make themselves comfortable.
And this one did exactly that.
What started as a bit of confusion between grandchildren and nieces and nephews had slowly turned into something else entirely.
These days I answer to Uncle Grandad without giving it a second thought.
It’s not really a title.
It’s more of a description.
It means being around for the kids.
It means telling stories.
It means asking questions and sometimes getting distracted halfway through an explanation because something interesting just appeared.
It means curiosity.
It means a shed full of projects.
It means terrible dad jokes that make people groan.
Somewhere between family life, stories, tinkering in the shed and the occasional strange idea, the name Uncle Grandad ended up fitting better than anything else.
And that’s the story.
There was never one particular day.
No official moment.
Just a nickname that slowly appeared, one conversation at a time.
And that’s the story behind the name..
Funny how things like that happen.
A lifelong storyteller, shaped by sheds, stories, and making things by hand.
This is where the ideas, the tinkering, and the occasional terrible joke all end up.
Uncle Grandad acknowledges the Bundjalung People as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which these stories are written and shared. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and honour the rich culture, storytelling traditions, and deep connection to Country that continue to inspire.