Nancy Pelosi Offers Gayle King an Alternative Name for Grandma

Gayle King has a favorite grandchild on the way!

On CBS This Morning, our editor at large announced that her favorite daughter, Kirby Bumpus, and her husband, Virgil Miller, are expecting their first child in September 2021. “You know how it goes: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Kirby with a baby carriage!" Gayle revealed during the show's Talk of the Table segment on April 28, adding that she's been bursting to share the news. "I got to tell my sisters this past weekend, and she told her friends the beginning of the week. So I said, 'Finally, can I please tell?'"

While the grandma-to-be wasn't allowed to show any pictures of the mom-to-be (admits Gayle, "I was a little irritated"), she was given permission to share the couple's birth announcement, which features their dog Slater.

The moment has been a long time coming—at least, for Gayle. In June 2019, just months after the couple first became engaged, People asked if she was ready to become a grandma and her exact response was, "Yes! Dear Jesus, yes. I can’t wait." But there is one aspect she is having trouble with: figuring out what she wants to be called.

"Number one, I don’t want to be called 'Grandma,'" she said, adding that there was one name she did like, Gaia, which means Mother Earth. "Nobody likes it but me. Oprah thinks it’s stupid and pretentious, but I like it. I thought Mumsy, but Kirby hated that...she goes, 'We’re not British.' Somebody else said 'Gammy,' but that sounds like an old lady with no teeth, so I don’t like that. So I’m soliciting!"

In fact, she even put Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the job, when the California democrat appeared on CBS This Morning following President Biden's joint address to Congress. "They call me Mimi and I have nine," Pelosi said when asked what name her grandchildren use, adding, "But I can just say this for sure: knowing you, admiring you, when you have that grandbaby, you will have everything."

And we have a feeling that's not the only name Gayle will be weighing in on: During an appearance on Ellen, Gayle revealed that she already had a long list of baby names in her phone—and that she already knows the sex. "Is it going to be Ellen if it's a girl?" Ellen DeGeneres joked, before offering to help with the baby naming. "[Portia and I] come up with good [names] too. We don't have babies, but we have lots of good names."

While we don’t know what name the couple, who married in December, will end up choosing—or, honestly, if they've even thought about it—we do know that Gayle is going to be a great grandmother. Not only is she hoping to take what she calls grandma maternity leave ("What do we get?" she asked her co-anchor Tony Dokoupil, who is expecting his second child next month. "Ten weeks? Twelve weeks? I'm going to be putting in for that"), but she's also going to help in whatever way she can.

"I'm going to follow [Kirby's] rules of the house. That's what I'm going to do. I’m going to do exactly what I’m told. I’m going to serve when asked to serve. I did ask if I could be in the delivery room and I got crickets on that," she said. "I’m just so excited, I can’t stand it!"

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