baby mama

• baby-mama
• baby momma

Formed in African-American Vernacular English, attested since the 1980s[1] and popularized in the 2000s.[2][3] Possibly from or influenced by same term in Jamaican English, from Jamaican Creole baby-mother (“pregnant woman”) (1966),[3] alternatively due simply to grammatical similarities between AAVE and Jamaican Creole.[2]

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baby mama (plural baby mamas)

1. (US, slang) Mother of child in common, particularly unmarried.
   • 2008, Ebony Vol. 63, No. 8, Sidestepping Baby Mama Drama - Jun 2008, page 154

     For men who must deal with these situations and others like them, the result is what has now been deemed as "baby-mama drama."

   She's not his girlfriend now, but she's one of his baby mamas.

Contentious usage – sometimes used neutrally as a casual term, regardless of marriage status, particularly in the tabloid press,[3] or as a term of endearment. Often considered pejorative, particularly if applied to unmarried black parents – if used by one parent of the other, can imply “child in common but no meaningful relationship”, while if used by outsiders, can imply disapproval of children born out of wedlock; see citations.[4] More formal variants include “baby’s mama” and “baby’s mother”; in formal usage “mother of one’s child” is preferred. Similar considerations apply to baby daddy.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:baby mama.

• baby daddy
• birth mother
• biological mother
• sperm donor