Many Brooklyn Dads Want to Be Called "Papa" Because It's More Unique Than "Dad"

Parenting trends come and go, many of them largely depending on a family's surrounding community. Recently, more and more progressive moms have opted for "mama" instead of "mom," and now the latest trend to rise out of Brooklyn, NY, comes from hipster dads, who want to be called "papa" instead of "dad" or "daddy."

Will Grose, a 36-year-old Brooklyn dad to three boys — Axel, Oscar, and Balthazar — thinks that "dad" sounds "very Saved by the Bell-ish" and said that about half of the children at his son's Williamsburg preschool use "papa" to refer to their fathers. "Perhaps 'papa' is representative of a general leaning towards wanting to be your child's friend as opposed to having a more hierarchical relationship," Armin Brott told The Daily Beast. "'Papa' is a little hipper, a little more familiar and friendlier than 'dad.'"

Although the trend seems to have popped up in urban areas due to a desire to be more alternative than the regular old dads of the world, don't be surprised if you see a beanie-wearing hipster kiddo calling for his papa in a coffee shop near you soon (though whether the trend spreads like wildfire throughout the US or stays put in BK, "papa" will never not make me think of Fievel from An American Tail).