Why do Brummies say 'Mom' instead of 'Mum'?
Yes, it's true that people in the UK from Birmingham and the Black Country say 'mom' instead of 'mum', and no, it's not true that it's an Americanism.
If you grew up in Birmingham or the Black Country, the word 'Mom' probably feels completely normal. Maybe it wasn't until you were older that you even realised people actually say 'Mum' elsewhere. Yet step outside the region and you'll quickly be told that it's wrong or American - maybe you've even been 'corrected' by a teacher and forbidden from using 'Mom'.
This confusion becomes especially visible around occasions like Mother's Day, when national retailers overwhelmingly stock cards for 'Mum' even in places where 'Mom' has been the everyday spoken form for generations. That leads to the same question being asked again and again: why do people in Birmingham say "Mom" in the first place?
The article below was written by Professor Carl Chinn, one of the West Midlands' best-known historians, and was originally published in print by the Birmingham Mail. Whether you're a lifelong Brummie, someone who moved to the area later in life, or simply curious about regional language in the UK, read on to find out how the pronunciation became rooted in the West Midlands.
This article was written by Professor Carl Chinn and originally published in print by the Birmingham Mail on 5 March 2016. It is republished here with the author's kind permission.
Our Mom
Earlier this week, Kevin R. Nicholls of Coleshill wrote in to the Birmingham Mail's 'Talkback' dismayed because he could not buy a card for his mother that says 'Mom'. His deep disappointment is shared by many of us who have searched in vain for a Mothering Sunday card without 'mum' emblazoned upon it and for one that is relevant for the name that we affectionately call our own mothers. Kevin wondered, therefore, if the use of 'mom' is a Brummie thing; it is indeed, although it is also a Black Country term.
Those of us who proudly refer to 'our mom' are constantly chided that the correct English diminutive for mother is 'mum' and that the word that we speak is an Americanism. Both are incorrect claims. Mom is common in the USA but our use of it is not a borrowing; rather it is rooted deep in our history and those origins emphasise that it is not a 'wrong' term. Instead it connects us to the coming of the Angles to our region from about the mid-500s.
This Germanic people who gave their name to Angleland, England, have left us many place names, including Birmingham itself, which is the homestead (ham) of the people (ingas) of Beorma. Others include Tyseley, probably meaning the woodland clearing or glade (ley) of Tisssa; Handsworth, signifying the enclosure or enclosed settlement (worth) of Hun; and Greet from greot, telling of a gravelly place.
These settlements all fell under the sway of Mercia and when, in the ninth century, that great kingdom was sundered in two by the invading Vikings, the east Midlands became part of the Danelaw whilst the west Midlands remained under Anglo-Saxon control. Consequently, in what is now the Birmingham region the linguistic effect of the Danes was restricted to those words such as fellow, score and beck that entered general usage.
So, how then did the Anglo-Saxons of west Mercia speak? Like all their folk from Northumbria in the north to Sussex in the south and from Essex in the east to Wessex in the west, their language was Old English. This was a Germanic speech which emerged amongst the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians and other groups from northern Germany and Denmark who arrived in the former Roman province of Britannia.
Apart from a few inscriptions written in the runic alphabet, little written material survives from the fifth and sixth centuries. Thus most of the evidence for the Old English language dates from the reign of King Alfred (849-99), by when various dialects were also apparent.
Because of the success of its rulers and their role in the making of the kingdom of England, the particular form of Old English belonging to Wessex became the dominant form for writing for most texts in the vernacular. Its dialect was spoken south of the Thames, except in Kent, but it is relevant to point out that many later West Saxon texts do indicate a Mercian influence. This was because Mercian scholars were brought in by Alfred to help the literary rebirth which he energised.
Elsewhere in England, Northumbrian held sway above the line made by the Mersey and Humber Rivers, thus embracing most of northern England and the eastern lowlands of Scotland. Finally, Mercian was the dialect of the folk of the Midlands and also the London district - for this had belonged to Mercia.
Like Northumbria, Mercia covered a wide area and it is not known if before the Danish conquests there were distinctions in the speech between its eastern and western localities or between its northern and southern districts. Unfortunately, there survive very few texts written in the Mercian dialect. However, those that do indicate that the Mercians turned an 'a' into an 'o' before a nasal consonant such as 'n', 'm' and 'ng'.
Thus Mercians would have said mon for man, hond for hand and lond for land. It is remarkable that this feature survived strongly into the twentieth century in Birmingham and the Black Country and it is because of this ancient linguistic feature that we say 'mom' and not 'mum'.
Both terms seem to be derived from 'mama'. This was recorded as an informal term for mother from the mid-sixteenth century, whilst 'mum' emerged a few decades later. Here in the west Midlands, mom would have arisen from the turning of the 'a' in 'mama' into an 'o', hence making it 'moma'.
As for the American use of 'mom', its use would seem to have come about in a similar way. The Oxford English Dictionary states that it appeared in the mid-nineteenth century from the shortening of momma, which had appeared a few decades earlier.
The Dictionary also notes that 'mom' is found in English regional use in the West Midlands but the earliest reference cited is from 1996 in Meera Syal's 'Anita & Me', her captivating book about two young girls growing up on the edge of the Black Country. Yet the use of 'mom' in Birmingham goes back much further.
It is likely that the word was spoken widely amongst working-class Brummies for a long time but the earliest written reference I have found is from the 'In Memoriam' column in the Birmingham Mail from Tuesday April 28, 1914. It is included in a moving entry from the Hughes family which reads: 'In loving memory of our dear little Ida who fell asleep April 28, 1913. One year has passed, our hearts still sore, as time rolls on we miss her more. Sadly missed by her lonely mom, dad, and grandma.'
There were then four Birmingham newspapers: the Post and Gazette of a morning, which attracted a more middle-class readership; and the Mail and Despatch of an evening, which appealed more to the working class. Unlike some northern newspapers, none of these publications included dialect stories or poems and references towards the speech of Birmingham's working class tended to be disparaging. This would account for the lack of written references before the early twentieth century.
It is telling, though, that the word mom was recorded first in the Birmingham Mail's 'In Memoriam' column, in which words were spelled as those placing the notice wished them to be. Similarly it is just as telling that today the word mom continues to be used regularly in the Mail's 'Announcements' pages.
During the First World War, 'mom' appeared several times in the newspaper, usually in relation to a notice placed by a family grieving over the loss of a child. The first occasion it was used regarding an adult was on Monday August 6, 1917 when Private Thomas Edgar Russell of the Worcestershire Regiment was remembered in loving memory.
Aged 21, he had been killed on August 6, 1915 at Gallipoli and was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs Russell of Kings Road, Kings Heath. Their notice was also touching: 'Sleep on, dear son, in a far-off land. In a grave we may never see. But as long as life and memory last. We will remember thee. Never forgotten by mom, dad, sisters and brothers, gran and granddad. He died a hero's death.'
These references to 'mom' come before the introduction of talking films in the later 1920s and so its pronunciation could not be the result of American influences. In the Second World War, the word 'mom' was also often used in the 'In Memoriam' section of the Evening Despatch, but it made just three appearances in articles in the Birmingham Daily Post.
On Tuesday September 12, 1939 the newspaper featured an article on Birmingham evacuees from the Summer Lane area in Abergavenny, noting that one child said to a foster parent 'I like you better than our mom'.
A few months later, on Wednesday April 3, 1940, another piece highlighted the work of Pype Hayes Hall, then a convalescent home for mothers. The writer emphasised that the staff dealt mainly with young mothers who relied greatly on their own mothers - so much so that 'we hear a lot about "our mom"'.
The final article on Wednesday February 26, 1941 concerned a bombed-out school, to which some children were returning. One of the youngsters announced that 'our mom had a tin of treacle last week' whilst another declared that his daddy had sent his mom a new baby, all the way from Egypt.
So this Mothering Sunday many of us will thank Our Moms for all that they have done for us, and for those of us who have lost our mothers we shall remember them lovingly not as mum but simply and fittingly as Our Mom.
About Professor Carl Chinn MBE
An off-course bookmaker until 1984, Professor Carl Chinn MBE is a social historian, writer, teacher and public speaker. He is the author of 36 books, amongst them studies of working-class housing, urban working-class life, poorer working-class women's lives, manufacturing, Birmingham, the Black Country, illegal bookmaking, and ethnic minorities. His Sunday Times number 1 bestseller Peaky Blinders: The Real Story. The true history of Birmingham's most notorious gangs (2019) is now translated into fifteen languages. Carl's latest book is Peaky Blinders. The Real Gangs and Gangsters (Blink 2025) and recently, he was consultant historian for the episode on the Real Peaky Blinders for Sky History's 'Original Gangsters with Sean Bean'. Awarded the MBE in 2001 for his services to local history and charity, he is also a noted campaigner for working-class rights and an ardent supporter of manufacturing and in 2010, he was awarded a Gold Medal by the Institute of Sheet Metal Engineering for his "commitment, enthusiasm and support for our manufacturing heritage". Early in 2026, Carl will be hosting his own podcast, Our Lives, Our Stories.