What does “babbo” mean in Italian?

Italian has more than one word for dad. The standard one is papà, but across Tuscany and parts of central Italy people say babbo instead — for their whole lives, not just as small children. It sounds warm and everyday rather than formal. The same word shows up at Christmas: the Italian Santa Claus is Babbo Natale, literally “Father Christmas,” so you may already know babbo without realizing it.

In the recording, Sara introduces her family and says, “Mio babbo si chiama Sandro” — “My dad’s name is Sandro.” Most Italians elsewhere reach for papà, a word that came into Italian from French and spread through the north. Babbo most likely grew out of the simple repeated sounds babies make, a pattern behind “dad” words in many languages. It stayed alive mainly in Tuscany, with pockets in Umbria, the Marche, Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia. And every December the same word returns as Babbo Natale, Italy’s name for Santa Claus.