cooch
coochie
your privates

I always called mine a "pee-pee," and when I had to go potty I had to "tee-tee" I was never even told what to call a "man part" but that didn't matter because I'm sure I thought all people were the same. I love reading your blog, by the way. :)

It was always "down there". Now my girlfriends and me calls it Julia. It is like another friend of ours to us :) /don´t mean to offend anyone called Julia of course/

I'm pretty sure my mom just taught me to call it "vagina." When I was three, I would introduce myself with my name and end with "and I have a vagina!" Family friends still tell that story to everyone!

However, I do know that my mom referred to boys differently. When she told me what to do if a strange man tried to touch me, it was "kick him between the legs" even tho I really *really* wanted to "kick him in the head"

girls "privates" were called something like a chupka. my family was from poland, so I always assumed that was the proper polish word for "vagina." now that I think about it, though, maybe it was a slang/curseword. or maybe it wasn't polish at all.

my parents used "tee-tee" (girls) and "tee-jay" (boys)-- was very confused the first time i saw a TJ Maxx store!

i like girl bits, coochie, or cha-cha

In my family we went with Bits for the most part, although Privates and Parts were both used once in a while. I don't know why everything had to be plural.

flower! =D

It was always just "down there,' for me, although my mother called my rear end my "moony," which still cracks me up. Why that?

My best friend called hers her "cookie," which presented many issues later in life.

the little boy I sit for now calls his his "peenee," but can also say the word "testicles." nice.

When I was a kid my vagina was referred to by my mother as a "tussy" (which was also the name of a brand of deodorant--was she trying to tell me something?). My brother's penis was a "berry". I don't think I learned the proper names for things until middle school when we had sex ed. It was in this class that I learned one of my favorite names for the penis, supplied by a classmate: "Mr. Mike". Needless to say, that boy spent the rest of the 7th grade going by the nickname Mr. Mike.

I was taught to say Winnie, but the neighbor girl said Francine.

My mom taught us to call it our P.B. I have no idea what it stands for, but I still feel weird when some one offers me a pb&j. My dad's daughter called it her "scrotch".

a friend of mine calls it her twinkle.

We are struggling with this with our 4-year-old daughter now....what I dislike about vagina is that, while it is the analagous part to the penis, it is not what you see when you first look nor what you are washing in the tub. So vulva or labia seem more appropriate, but won't people think you're weird for using THOSE terms? When I was little we didn't really call it anything. With our gal we mostly just talk about washing "the bathroom area," which includes her "bottom" (which only refers to the backside at our house) and her "front." We've told her about her vagina, as well as about her urethra, but when it comes to bathtime we're really more concerned about washing off the pee and poo residue so "bathroom area" seems ok!!

Incidentally, my husband and his 2 brothers grew up snickering whenever they heard "pickles" being referenced, and my dad still has the same reaction to "noodles."

Other terms used in the local parlance of our crowd are "cookie" (for girls) and "cracker" (for boys), but we've chosen not to go with those for obvious reasons.

A related question--what about farts? What are you going to call those? We like "toot."

On the off chance that you can possibly read this far:

Wooter = Penis (derived from peter)

Wootus - Vagina (derived from uterus)

courtesy of my sister-in-law and her kids!

My parents gave me the real words, until at age three, I embarassed them at my grandmother's Christmas Eve party, at which point they took them back. My Grandma had a toilet seat cover with santa on it. When you raised the seat, there was a felted Santa, with his eyes covered. On my way to show my potty trained prowess, I pointed to the felted Santa with eyes covered and asked my gram, "Is that so he won't see my Gyna?" They died, and I didn't relearn the word til I was 12.

At home, the family referred to the parts by their by-the-book names, but at school it was a free for all.
Personally, I like "yoni" and "betweens" best.

I have five-year-old twins who refer to their genitalia as penis and vagina. Last week, for some reason, my daughter announced that "the penis is the vagina's friend." When asked how she knew this she replied, "It's a rule." And whose rule is that? "It's my rule." Let's hope she doesn't tell her teachers her rule.

I had a girlfriend in college whose mother taught her that she had 'chips.' Apparently, her mother thought that the labia looked just like chips sitting side by side. I really don't get the symbolism, but I do think it's funny that you could say 'chips and salsa' if you wanted to refer to menstruation (I never brought that little gem up during dinner conversation).

When we were very young we called our privates birdys. Now it's padinga or for a guy padoogie.

I had a girlfriend once who called it a "cootie cat". She was 25 and still called it that. She didnt last long.

My mom always referred to it as my 'suzie'. Looking back, I guess it's a good thing that I didn't have any friends growing up by that name. When I was old enough to bathe myself without drowning, she'd always say to me, "Make sure you wash suzie's face!" lol

Bobo!

One son called it his Pirate Place (private). Other son called specific parts his "tentacles". Kind of a marine theme there, which is odd since we live in the Midwest.

Yeah, my mother called it a tutu. Of course, when I took ballet lessons and learned a relative's phone number (which was x22-xxxx), I couldn't stop laughing. And remember, there is a distinct difference between your "tutu" (butt) and your "front tutu" (everything else).

I called it "My crack." Such as, in the bathtub and I didn't get all the soap out "Mom! My crack is burning!"

I later on used the phrase "hoohoo" which has now been turned into "cooter."

We'll probably use cooter around our soon to be born child.

My best friend's little sister called it her "Tutor."

We weren't allowed to talk about our neather regions. Good luck. How about poodle? Heh.

I don't remember calling them much of anything growing up, but I must have been told the term vulva once. I know this because I hated the fact that we had a Volvo station wagon - the two words sounded identical to me. :)

My mom gave birth to 4 freaking girls & she used the term winkie [winky?] for all of us...I guess the term has been used in my family for ages, because every time an aunt or cousin has a baby & I'm there to witness a diaper/clothing change, the word winkie always comes up. Kind of like a private part name heirloom. oh, & as far as I know, boys have a twinkie.

I didn't have a word for it. I remember telling my mother (loudly) in a parking lot that if I have a backside than this (it involved pointing) must be my "front side." I learned "vagina" from books when I was about 9 or so.

My daughters learned "vulva" when they were 18 months old and they once they did, they used it often and to anyone in the general area. "Vulva" is the correct term for the outter area and somehow, it just sounds better than "vagina".

They don't quite get the concept of "penis" yet since my husband is deployed so it's just us girls. My oldest pointed to a picture of a little boy in one of her books and announced, "vulva." Oh well, we'll deal with that in the near future.

We refer to Girls' parts as her bubby. It's cute, non-offensive and get's the message to her. Used as such: let's wash your bubby and butt (bathtime), singing to the tune of tiny bubbles while changing said girl...Tiny bubby....it's sooo cute....Tiny Bubby..in your birthday suit...

By the way...the sleep book you're using totally rocks. Our Girl is almost 21 months now and she's totally predicatable. It was hard in the beginning, but it's totally cool now. She goes to bed every night @ 7-7:15 and gets up @ 6:30-7 every morning. No fuss...no muss.

good luck

psquared

We always called it "tooter". It was a gender neutral term. We knew we were talking about "down there" on either a boy or girl. I have taught my four year old son to use the word penis. I overheard his dad giving him a bath telling him to wash his "boy parts". After telling him two or three times, my son finally said, "I don't know what that is!" I yelled down the hallway, "Your penis!" It really cracked me up.

Damn, you get a lot of comments.
I like "the girl".... that's what she's called lately, although I am also fond of cooter.
I think my mom called it by the technical "vagina" nomenclature. I'm neither here nor there on that word.

When we were little my bro's part was called a doink and mine wasn't called anything...but a friend of mine has a girl and she calls it a butt butt and my son calls his a peeper not to be confused with a popper which is a popsicle....

We called it by it's scientific name, or in mixed company, "privates". But I think I'm going to have to go with "coochal region" from now on.

I am at work and, though tempted, unable to read through the huge number of responses to see if these gems from my past made the list already. One friend's mom referred to genitals of either sex as "your personal business." My grandmother would refer to female bits as (phonetically given here)"goon-gee" (with the second syllable pronounced as in the word geese) and for boys - the "shame-shame". Now if that isn't potentially damaging to one's sexual identity development, I don't know what is.

My cousin always called the little girl's a Dutesy (rhymes with cutesy). So, my male cousin's always grew up thinking another name for a little girl is Dutesy. One day my cousin walks into daycare and hears my male cousin (who is about 4 at the time) yelling at the top of his lungs he wants to play house and he wants to be the DUTESY!! My cousin about died!!

I cannot recall what "it was called in my early years only that when I got a bath my mother would tell me to Plie so that she could clean down there. It sure made for some snickering when she put me into ballet class. It slowly dawned on me that the other girls mothers didn't use ballet terms when they got baths. Don't laugh I thought it looked like a flower, a tulip no less, so called it a tulie. Now I just call her "my girl"

we call the girls part as "quack-quack", and the boys' part as "sausage".

How about just keeping her in the dark about the whole thing. I didn't know I had anything down there until I was about ten. That kept me pretty celibate for the next 10 years after that.

my mother raised three girls and called all of ours "Tooter"

we had these neighbors that used to call it a front butt...I don't really remember talking about it that much. I think though my mom referred to it as a "patutie" aww memories...

When I had my ultrasound finding out that I was going to have a boy the doctor called his parts a turtle. I don't remember ever calling the girl parts anything so I am no help there.

I would have to suggest going with "danger zone". But that is only funny if you watch mad tv and know who stuart is.

We say "labia" because that is the part our two-year-old is pointing to when she asks, "Whassat?" With the recent addition of a baby brother, we have heard lots of talk about his "Pee-NUSS" and how she has no "Pee-NUSS", only a "ladybug."

Heheheheh.

We always called it "downstairs".
Breasts were called "upstairs".

My cousin calls it a peach. My friend called it a punky. I called it what it was to the dismay of my third grade teacher.

We called it a variety of names: hoo-hoo, cooch, catdog (for a penis), flower, etc. I could go on and on and on . . . to this day I can't recall ever hearing my parents calling it anything at all. I think they're still in denial.

I taught my three-year old to call it the same thing I called it.

Who-who.

My parents called it my "pee pee". But, I heard it referred to as a Vagina somewhere at a young age, and thought mine would transform from a "pee pee" to a Vagina before I got older, and that pssibility scared me.

Luckily, I have a son, the word penis is not laborious to say.

My friend teaches her daughters, "sue sue".

My wife called it her "TWEE TWA" and "DO DAH"

I have a friend who always referred to it as "pootertang".

It was all "heiny" as far as my mother was concerned.

My favorite word for it appeared in college. I was doing a project over another guy's apartment, and his roommate had one of the trampy foreign soccer girls in the bedroom with him. We (me and project boy) are both working industrially when we hear a shout, "don't touch my nu-nu!"

So, there you have it. It's been my favorite label ever since. Nu-nu. I highly doubt Leta will hear that in everyday conversation and giggle.

My mom called it "bottom"... the whole thing was "bottom". I've taught my daughter (she's 3) to say "vagina", but I reading the posts, perhaps I should rethink. When I was pregnant with her and going to the midwife, I could barely speak the word "vagina" when I had a question. When my daughter was potty training and would pee, I always asked her, "Is your bottom empty?" because sometimes she'd jump up before competely emptying. Guess maybe I'm stuck with "bottom", but I pledge to later explain to her all her various parts!

my parents insisted on the actual names. but i agree. vulva and vagina aren't very attractive.

sidenote: my little sister called poop "mokoon balls", with mokoon being her word for monkey.

me, being 8 at the time, thought that was just about the funniest thing ever.

My sister and I called them our beanies.

...then we saw an entire family at a beanie baby convention wearing, "I Love My Beanies" tee-shirts...

Mine: cooder
Boys: candy

Pee Pot. My best friend and I made this up all on our own.

Maybe this is in the risque category, but I can almost guarantee that there will be no confusion with it: "punani"

my daughter calls hers a "monkey" and she calls her brother's a "tail"...

we always called ours a goonyah!

I have enjoyed reading these comments immensely!! What a great topic!

I didn't call my vagina anything, as a girl. It was never ever referred to, in my household. A bit of a shame.

A great boyfriend I ended up having years later broke the spell for me, and came up with many pet names for my "AREA".

My favorite was "Si senor."

Obviously I don't recommend this for a child!

My little one knows hers as her "parts" (as in "parts is parts," from a 1980s commercial) or her "bits." Technically, aren't the female's "outer bits" known as the vulva, while the "inner bits" are known as the vagina? In college, we called it the "foofy."

well, since i was born in brasil my mom had a really ugly word for it. "xoxota." personally, i cringe every time she says it. she still does, btw.

but a friend of mine told me her mother called it her music box. go figure.

mine was called a "wee-wee" and my brother's was called a "pee-pee".

my ex called his penis "tucky" which i thought was ADORABLE - and could be used for either sex.

as a grownup i generally will use the word "cooch" - but i will say vulva and vagina if i am referring to either in specific.

but i vote for "betweens" or "poogie" of all the ones i have read so far.

A girl has a pogey (pronounced "poe-gee") and a boy has a doobie doobie. Also, if you have to urinate, you can say "I have to go she she." That applies to both boys & girls, of course.

I honestly don't remember what my folks used. My dad never used any words, and I believe my mom used "down there" and "privates"--nothing too fun. However, a friend who is Portuguese said that the word for vagina in Portunguese is "vaguege" (va-juhj'). I have no idea how to spell it and it's hard to explain how to pronounce, but the G's are really soft, like french J's (Je t'aime). I think it's really pretty, and a real word. PS Tried to translate it on Google translations, but apparently Google thinks "vagina" is a bad word. Good luck!

Girls: "Coolie" (I think my family altered the Italian ---as in "Va fa un cuolo", go fuck yourself.)

Boys: "Doodle".

Ass: "Heiny"

cheeseburger is pretty cute, but with mad cow disease it might be odd in a few years. i like "tookie" - my boyfriend uses this word, and it's great because it won't ever have an association with anything else. also it's damn cute.

My mother called our vagina's (oldest of 4 girls) a tush, and our butt was your bottom. I was in utter horror when in middle school and some said that got something sticky on their tush, in public mind you. I was going to die; I turned three shades of puce.

As we got older we called them privates, now I call it was it is, a muff. ;)

My son is 6 I tell him his Penis is just that, but in public we call it a pee-pee and honestly I don't refer to it that much publicy. He on the other hand invented a world for his testicles, "Peanuts". As in careful mom, don't zip up my peanuts in the zipper with my penis!"

Mooker

i have a little girl, and when we bathe her or wipe her, we refer to her "nether regions." it has a classy, literate sound to it. i kinda like it.

Wow! That's a heck of a lot of comments! I knew vagina and penis kinda early on, but girls mostly had a pee-pee or a coochie and the boys had a wee-wee or a winkie. Or privates was interchangeable for either sex. Then I learned from my friends on our street words like business, tu-tu, girly bits, treasure, loo-loo, cho-cha and toolie, and peter, dick, jo-jo, dingle, and willy. I use crotchal area, naughty bits, girlie parts, or coochie a lot, and my nieces call it their squishy or girlie.

According to my four-year-old, boys have peanuts and vegetables and girls have anginas.

Hi

What font was that "my milkshake, it's better than yours" made of, your previous style?

Greetings

Honestly, I think I called it my vagina - I like that my mom was up front with me. But in college I've heard lots of folks using "cooter" and "coochie" and "coochiesnortcher" which I think is cute. Maybe try checking out the Vagina Monologues - I remember they have a section that lists all kinds of different words for it :)

Boys have Meat & Two Veg, girls have Meat Curtains or the Axe Wound.

mine was always a 'bebe' because that's the Chinese version of a cutesy name for your vagina.
but I think your 'betweens' would work pretty well.

So far, on your list, I like zezette, stork, and yoni best.

At my house it was just my "bottom," or occasionally my "front bottom" if I needed to be more explicit.

I wouldn't use "winkie," simply because that is slang for "penis" in England, which might get confusing if you ever moved here.

to this day i still say wiener.

Mine is/was called my coochie mollie.

wee-wee from my mom & "hookie-hoo" from my grandmother, both wonderfully absurd names for a penis.

As really young we started with butterfly, but we also had armcrotches instead of armpits. Its been called many names throught the years: cootie, cootchie, squirrel, nut cracker, and taco, and jane. For boys there was ding dong, willy, tallywhacker, peter, and dick.
I don't recommend dick and jane though unless you really wanna "See Dick run" said Jane. "Run, Dick, Run!" Yes first grade reading was so much fun! And on another note my Dr.'s name is Dick Cox who who do that to a child!!!!!

I have a friend whose daughter also knows the appropriate termanology, but decided on her own that all genitalia was called a "whobie." Girls, like Mommy and me and she, have "flat whobies" and men, like Daddy and her friend Joey, have "bumpy whobies" or "pointly whobies"

By the way. It's nice to have comments back for a day. Feels kind of festive.

my mother always called it a bobo. many other kids called a booboo a bobo. i was once caught comparing bobos/booboos with a little girl who had scraped her knee.

My mom used to call it my "coolie." I think it sounds cute.

In our house (not French), the weiner(s) are called zizis. And we call diapers nappies.

Que internationale!

Growing up, we called our penises a Personal.

It has a name?

you should call it tulip!

it's a double entendre, see?

one meaning is literal: two lips

the other is metaphoric: flower.

just don't ever let her visit holland. it could prove traumatic.

Hoo-hoo.

Why not just call it a "Pink Taco" or "Hairy Clam"? Thats what I plan on telling my future children..plus it sounds alot better

For girls? Bajingo or minge.

My mom taught my brother and I the right terms, which shocked the hell out of my dad. He didn't believe I knew where my parts were when I was younger so just to prove it to him, my mom asked me to point (while fully clothed) where my various parts were and I got them all right. My dad about died.

My grandmother (dad's mom) called everyone's private parts a "peeper" which made me feel really wrong whenever I'd hear the "jeepers, creepers, where'd you get those peepers" song on Sesame Street.

I call it Trouble...Yes with a capital T

This is so funny I'm trying not to shriek out loud laughing because I'm at work. We have a one-year-old daughter and we usually call it her "soft parts," although we also use the real word all the time. She'll probably learn and use both, most likely in mixed company!

It was coined "doopa" by my grandmother. I do believe that is either nonsense or Polish.

Nu-nu. I still call it that. Cute...and it has no other meaning!

This is great! I have just recently been trying to think of what to teach my 2 year old (correct names or euphemisms). When I was little we called it a "doo doo" but she also taught me the correct names for both. Didn't have any brothers so I didn't learn male-part slang!

So I told my best friend I would comment if no one added mine...Everyone in my family always called it a 'posey'. Which is nice, but of course now any time anyone refers to flowers as posies I crack up. Now I know why no one else laughed - apparently no one else calls it that! If I have a daughter I will probably refer to hers as a posey as well. Boys usually had peepees or weiners (which also still causes giggles at the mention of certain Oscar Mayer products). :)

I think we just called it a pee-pee. To this day (as an nearly 18-year-old), when I say the word vagina, my dad officially freaks out. My dad used to call my brother's penis the "winky", hahaha. I can't get over it. You could always teach Leta sign language for it, so whenever you wanna say that word, or have her tell you she needs to go pee, she can just make the sign. Little kids are good with that stuff!! :D

For some reason, my daughter's father referred to her private parts as her stinger. Years later, when my daughter heard of the musician Sting, she was horrified.

My wife calls her vagina a "woobie". A friend of ours often times refers to hers humorously as her "chipped ham".

Why not just wait and see what she wants to call it?

little bum.

(versus the big bum in the back.)

Tee-tee-er.

Because it makes, tee-tee, duh.

My wife taught my 2 little girls it was a vagina, little girls don't speak well, and the first tome she told me her gina itches, her what? MY GINA!, of course very loudly in a grocery store.

Like Maxine, I've heard a vagina referred to as a "lily" and always thought that was nice; respectful, delicate, and oh so Georgia O'Keefe.

As a children my sister and I called it our "little bottom" which later morphed into "dinky" (as in small, you know?). Shockingly both of these have been mentioned already. People who are horrified by the thought of "little bottom" should remember that, without pubic hair, the vulva does look like a smaller butt. Especially from above (one's personal point of view.)

I was introduced to "Yoni" as a teenager and have loved it ever since. With my own 10-week-old daughter, I think I'm going to alternate vagina with the more affectionate nicknames as circumstances warrant, which is, I think, what my parents did with me.

BTW, a sonogram technician, while trying to determine the sex of my friend's fetus in utero, said that she was looking for "the taco." Goes along with the cheeseburger thing -- the bulgy, meaty sandwich idea. (note: do NOT use "bulgy, meaty sandwich.")

I'm the oldest of three girls, so we never needed a family word for boy parts. We used "tussie" for girl parts, corresponding with "tushie" for the rear end. I think it might be Yiddish.

Love your blog--first time poster.
My mom always called it my "crotch," but it's such an ugly word. I think I only used the word vagina with Ella once, and she picked on some piece of it and calls it her "Nina" (neeena).
Yesterday I was wearing shorts and all of a sudden I feel her little finger pointing up my leg when she said, "Mama's nina!"
I don't know what we'll do if we ever have a boy because Matt calls his penis, of all this, his "weiner." I really hate that word, and I think he only uses it to irritate me.
Maybe Leta will come up with her own concoction and all these hilarious suggestions will be for naught.

My parents raised me on vagina and penis, but I couldn't prounounce V's when I was little. Consequetly, along with binoculars and banessa, came bagina.
I vote for ladybits. Easier consonants for a child, and it has a cute ring.

My vagina was called a "buzzy" when I was little. I refuse to do that to my children, though. Vagina works best, there's no other meaning for it, therfore no confusion.

"nether regions"

"the land of milk and honey"

Believe it or not, it was called a "pussy". I guess my parents were unaware that this would later come to be a vaguely pornographic term.

When I was about six years old, my best friend (we're both female) were taking a bath and I asked what she called hers. She told me its name was "Candy Mee Mee" and I have no idea where that came from, but it sure made me laugh out loud!

We called my brother's penis his 'pee pee.' I knew that my area was called a vagina, but Mom and I called it my 'peep.'

Tee-tee or coochie for girls

ding-dong or dingalo for boys

hoo-hoo
pooter
wally*

*don't ask

'cooter' reminds me too much of The Dukes of Hazzard.

Seriously I guess 'Private Parts' works unless you start thinking of Howard Stern's movie. Damn this is tough.

Man, I can't remember my ever even mentioning them, although my dad was more given to that kind of humor than my mom was. My brother always had a "weiner," I remember that much. Otherwise it was probably something like "crotch" or "private parts," both of which are pretty unmistakable, I think.

front:
female- funny box or bacoochie (hey that's what my mom told me. bacoochie came from my granny.) when i learned how to use a dictionary, i demanded to know the right name. then i ran around for weeks singing vagina, especially in public.

male- ding aling. where does that come from? you pull it, no bell rings. i don't get it.

back:
butt or heinie (sometimes heinie hole)

My parents taught me and my bro "vagina" and "penis" but we also learned "vulva" which made us laugh at Volvo's every single time.

And on hearing something shocking in a song, several years ago, my mother (about 50 at the time) and I (about 22 at the time) heard a song on the radio and she said to me she was shocked they would play the song on the radio. I was puzzled because the song was The Eagles' "Life In The Fast Lane". I mean, sure it was a little racy in parts and talked about drugs. But she seemed really taken aback. So I asked her what she thought they were saying and she told me: "Wipe in the Vaseline".

Well....I would have been offended too. I officially disowned her as my mother at that moment. I mean, what's worse, the song actually saying that? Or a 50 year old woman, that happens to be your mother, IMAGINING that is what they are saying?!?!

By the way, I vote No for 'Bug' because by that time, bugs will probably also be a general subject of conversation. I like Bottom System!

We had a unisexual term for the whole undercarriage: boodle. Nipples were called stars.
Now the boobs have their own names (Bernadette & Brenda), the hooha is called Priscilla and the uh, backside is Angela. The boyfriend is sporting Percy in front & Arnold out back.

Hoo-hah. Still call it that to this day.

My mom taught us the correct terms but we usually called it "The Swimsuit Area" as that seemed to apply to both boys and girls.

We were taught the proper terms, too. It kind of confused me when I was younger and my friend didn't know the word "feces." So I told him that it was the Persian word for "poo." That was my general assumption for words my friends didn't use - that the word was Persian. Anyway, in general, I referred to my PARTS as "vulva."

in my house, it was always pee pee for girls. as in, "does your pee pee hurt?". it was also used for peeing, but everythning worked out ok. dinkie was used for my brothers. i would also vote for teaching the correct name of things as well, to avoid confusion later. my little brother didn't know what a penis was until 2nd grade.

Also, I was in a grocery store one day ahead of a woman with one small girl. The girl was maybe 2 or 3. I am a large woman and as I stood there checking out, I heard the little girl say out loud, "Mama! Look at that fat lady! She must have a HUGE vagina!" I would have been insulted, but I was laughing too loudly.

toot toot- but pronounce the oo's like in book, not like a train whistle. my dad would never remind me to wash my vagina, but i clearly remember him standing beside the bath with a washcloth saying "let's wash your toot toot now!"

I truely wanted to read all the responses prior to posting but alas! Of what I've read, "China" really cracks me up, as I am chinese and my ex bf used to call me that as a pet name. "Kiki" is the filipino term. Bebe (beh beh)is the Chamorro term. My Korean friend calls his "my boy" and "your girl". Being a LOTR fan, "My Precious" comes to mind LOL. But along those lines, I think naming it something that has a high value might work. It teaches them to "treasure" and protect it and only to share with those who are worthy.

Now that I think about it, my friend calls hers her "roast beef curtains".

I don't think I ever referred to it as a child because it was "off limits" to talk about. Now I prefer the word "cooch" or "coochie" cause I think it sounds cute and innocent.

My sisters and I always called it a vagina. I just remember thinking it wasn't fair that our vaginas didn't allow us to stand up and pee like our boy cousins.

I have heard some women call it their 'cook.' I suppose if you're calling the uterus the 'oven' this makes sense. Or should the penis be called the cook...?

around the house growing up we always just called it a "peepee" and that was to refer to both boys' and girls' naughty bits.

a few years ago a friend and i were throwing around some ideas and somehow, from the innermost depths of our perverted psyches, came the phrase "bogina frontfanny", which conveniently also serves as a great name for the next bond girl.

My mother referred to mine as a "Hoochie Pat". I don't know where the pat came in. My grandmother adopted this phrase and eventually used it as an insult, usually as a replacement for "bitch". It was also never referred to as YOUR Hoochie Pat but always as THE Hoochie Pat, which was odd, and as a child I thought we all shared a Hoochie Pat.

Boys had "Turtles". That made early trips to the zoo interesting, as I learned that there were all different types of "turtles" from smaller than your hand to giantic and 100 years old.

A friend always referred to hers as her plumbing.

Personally, I'm referring to my unborn's as a hoo-hoo. Maybe when I actually see it I will name it something else.

My family has called it both a "chichi" and a "pootie"

Well, in my very Catholic family, if we needed to refer to "down there" (and really, why would we need to?) we'd usually just point below and shake our heads. Then, filled with shame, we'd return to our rosary beads. Amen.

from the yiddish - my mom adopted tuchus (with that hebrew "ch" sound) to mean the whole area ... so mine was called: "tushy." The down side, of course, is that everything became one piece of anatomy instead of distinct parts ...

in our language, it's called: "pepe". if we were attempting to be vulgar, we call it "pekpek".

gosh. what are yall,
Ay-nglish?

yeah, call it her booboo in her child years, then just tell her to call it a groin when she starts her teen years.

I had a friend that called it a nen.
I always referred to it as naughty bits, but in children that could have some SERIOUSLY undesired effects.
Personally I like hoo-ha.
My mother was SO clinical..vagina vagina vagina.
blah

I can not remember it ever being called anything ever. I think maybe down there. I actually am a mom of a boy I tend to say things like, Did you remember to wipe your ass? too. He has a penis. Sometimes I think I might have said "private parts."

'you could always call it her "leta." as in, "let mama wash your leta."'

She'd think she was NAMED AFTER IT.

front bum.

seriously.

I think my mother called it down there, but I have a new one

'your Betweens' thats what I call it for the kids I watch (their mother taught me) and it works lovely...becuase a three year old really doesn't say 'between' a lot.

So 'lemme wash your betweens' works for us

My female part was simply "go-go". As you can imagine, Go-go boots and Go-go dancers had an entirely different meaning for me.

I don't really remember calling it anything. I think I knew the word "vagina" but never used it. Someone commented that they called it their "front bum" and I remember occasionally refering to it as my "front butt" and my mom or other family members saying, "that's NOT a butt."

Hm. My good friend and I recently had the "How did our parents decide to call it THAT?" discussion. Must have been some kind of phone poll, since it was pre-Web.

But her folks referred to it as her "tutu." I think my folks were more on the "call it what it actually is" line, but "private parts" was definitely thrown around.

For my money, if you're gonna call it something other than what it is, just shorten the real world. Something like "Budge." Because how often do people use the word 'budge?'

Good luck.

Well I always called mine a Hoo-hoo and my four year old calls it her cootchie. Of course she knows vagina is the proper term but I guess cootchie is cuter to her.