Calling Parents by Their Name

Marge: Marjorie... [Lisa] called me Marjorie...
Homer: So? Bart calls me Homer.
Marge: You know that's out of disrespect.

— The Simpsons, "How Lisa Got Her Marge Back"

Children, no matter their age, usually refer to their parents as "mom/mum and dad", "mommy/mummy and daddy", "mother and father", or the like. When they are on a First-Name Basis it usually means something significant about their family. It could be that mom and dad are Hippie Parents or Open Minded Parents, or simply pragmatism for those that have same-sex parents. It could be that the child is bratty and rebellious. Maybe the parent in question didn't meet their child until adulthood or weren't the primary caregiver, or maybe their relationship just isn't very good. It could even be merely a case of You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious. This is a common way to tell a biological parent You're Not My Father. In Eastern media, this act is taken much more seriously, as it is virtually unheard of for children to call their parents by only their name. When present, it is often a sign of extreme estrangement or even outright hostility between parent and child.

Step-parents, foster parents, and sometimes adopted parents are usually (but not always) exempt from the "Don't call your parents by their name" rule, especially if they're relatively new.

Compare First-Name Basis and Parental Title Characterization. See New Parent Nomenclature Problem for the problem of what to call a step-parent or parental substitute. A Significant Name Shift may occur depending on the relationship.

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Examples

Advertising

• From the Allstate Insurance Mayhem series in 2010, Mayhem (Dean Winters) plays a teenage son who is listening to a football game on a headset while using a riding lawn mower. He runs over a stone bed, sending projectiles through the windows of his house and his father's (stepfather's?) car. Though given he was only paid US$5 for the job, even by 2010 standards that's absurdly low.
  Mayhem: Sorry, Robert. Five dollars doesn't buy my undivided attention.

Anime and Manga

• In ◯◯ Yuri, Yuuki asks if she can call her mother, Sayaka, by name. It's not out of disrespect, but because Yuuki has an incestuous crush on Sayaka, but Sayaka understandably isn't happy about it.
• In Ah! My Goddess, Keichi's and Megumi's parents require them to call them by name rather than "Mom" and "Dad".
• In Attack on Titan, Zeke refers to his father Grisha by name, bitter over the latter using him as a pawn. He stops doing so after realizing Grisha cared for both his sons, and even regretted how he'd treated Zeke.
• Bleach: Uryuu calls his father, Ryuuken, by his name, showing the extreme estrangement between the two. It's revealed that Uryuu left home before he was fifteen, and was mainly raised by his grandfather, Souken. Ryuuken himself has anger issues with Souken, as he has always hated being a Quincy and cannot tolerate Uryuu learning how to be one from Souken. Although Souken tried to tell Uryuu that Ryuuken has reasons for being so angry, Uryuu refused to listen. Souken stole Quincy technology from the Wandenreich when exiled for future use opposing Yhwach. When Yhwach murdered Uryuu's mother with magical silver, Ryuuken forever destroyed his desire to be a Quincy by secretly autopsying his own wife to collect the silver and forge the only weapon capable of neutralising Yhwach. Uryuu learns the truth when Ryuuken gives him the arrow to help Ichigo defeat Yhwach. The epilogue reveals Uryuu has reconciled with Ryuuken and is now a doctor at his father's hospital.
• Bloom Into You has a sibling variation, in which Yuu calls her older sister Rei "Rei-chan," although she corrects herself and refers to her as "my sister" when talking about her with Touko. The sisters get along, even though Rei often gets on Yuu's nerves.
• A sibling variation happens in Bokurano, in the anime's final episode, one of Daichi's younger brothers, Santa, calls Daichi by name when bitterly remarking about how Daichi, who'd raised them in their parents' absence, abandoned them. In truth, Daichi had actually died saving the world, a truth that Kana, the sole survivor of the kids from the nature school who'd piloted Zearth, is about to tell him as the series ends.
• Rin from Bunny Drop has a parental figure in Daikichi however calls him by his name. She doesn't see him as a father, and in the manga at least this foreshadows how she eventually falls for Daikichi as a teen. Rin refers to her biological father as "Grandpa" because he was a senior, even though he's her dad. This also foreshadows in the manga that Rin isn't biologically Daikichi's grandfather's child.
• Richard and Seigi both from The Case Files of Jeweler Richard call their mothers by their first names for most of the series (and both stop at the end of volume nine after working through some emotional things).
• In Comic Girls, Kaos once refers to her father by his given name when talking to her editor, explaining that he gave her the idea that chopping wood is manly. It's unclear whether she makes a habit out of this, though.
• Death Note: At the end of the series, Light Yagami addresses his late father by his full name while declaring that in a world so rotten, idealists like Soichiro who fight for justice and died trying to stop Kira will always be made out to be fools unless Light can continue to rule.
  Matsuda: What was it all for then? What about your dad? What the hell did he die for?!
  Light: My dad? You mean Soichiro Yagami? That's right, Matsuda! In this world, all those earnest people like him who fight for justice... they always lose! You want a world where people like that are made to be fools?!
• A variant in one Doraemon short where Nobita and Doraemon goes to the future to check on Nobita's adult life. Nobita is happy to find out he married his Love Interest, Shizuka, in the future, but Nobita turns out to be an exact doppelganger of his future son, which he finds out when he tries calling Shizuka... only for adult!Shizuka (mistaking Nobita to be Nobita Jr.) to pinch his cheeks for "calling his mother directly by her name".
• Dragon Ball Z: Trunks would often call Vegeta by his first name, which is both due to not wanting to reveal to Vegeta that he’s his son from the future, and perhaps due to holding no respect for his father. After the two got closer and Trunks no longer had to keep things a secret, he begins calling Vegeta "father".
• Cana of Fairy Tail for the most part refers to Gildarts by his given name, even though she spent a lot of the early part of the story trying to work up the courage to tell him that he was her father. Given her personality and the fact that once he learns the truth Gildarts turns into an Amazingly Embarrassing Parent who is constantly doting on her, it's not that surprising. During the Alvarez Empire arc, however, she does call him "Dad" when they're fighting together against August, and he seems on the verge of being killed trying to protect her, showing that she truly loves him as much as he loves her.
• In Fate/stay night, Shirou alternates between referring to his adoptive father, who's passed away some time before the start of the series, as "My father" or "Kiritsugu." Unlike many examples, Shirou considered his days with Kiritsugu to be the happiest of his life, so there's no disrespect intended.
• In Fate/Zero, Kariya calls Zouken, a distant ancestor who's technically his father, by name, although he once uses "Father". Kariya hates Zouken for a variety of reasons, especially what he's doing to Sakura.
• In Father and Son, Shou refers to his father, Youichi, as "You-san" instead of "Dad" or "Daddy". Other characters are shocked to learn this, which results in one of Shou's classmates telling him to not do that and one of Youichi's students feeling bad for him.
• Grandparent example: in the epilogue of Fruits Basket, it's shown that the granddaughter of Tohru and Kyo calls them by their names. Her mother scolds her for this, only to be pointed out that they want her to do it.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Ed only ever refers to his estranged father as "Hohenheim". Unlike his younger brother Al, who still calls him "Dad", Ed never forgave him for abandoning their family and leaving them alone to deal with the death of their mother. However, towards the end of the manga, he finally calls him "Dad" after Hohenheim offers to give up his own life so Ed can bring back Al's body and soul (Ed refuses).
• The Gods Lie: Natsuru Nanao always calls his mother by her first name, Ritsuko. Her husband died from cancer when Natsuru was young and she is a Starving Artist who spends lots of time trying to make money off of light novels, which may explain the informality with her son.
• In Hell Girl, Tsugumi calls her father "Hajime-chan".
• Hori from Horimiya always refers to her father by name because she has absolutely zero respect for him.
• In Hunter × Hunter, after finally meeting him face to face, Gon takes to calling his father by his name Ging. While he has a great deal of respect for Ging, he simply doesn't see him as a father-figure. To be fair, Ging doesn't see himself as such either.
• In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, Josuke Higashikata, the protagonist of the Part, meets Joseph Joestar, who fathered him during an extramarital affair with Josuke's mother and only recently became aware that he had a son. Josuke insists on calling Joseph "Joestar-san" ("Mr. Joestar"), which is more respectful than most of these examples, but emphasizes that Josuke doesn't think of Joseph as his father. By the end of Diamond is Unbreakable, while he still doesn't calls him "dad", he affectionately calls Joseph "old man", and has clearly accepted him as his father.
• Satsuki from Kill la Kill refers to her mother by her name, several times even on a Full-Name Basis. Her mother is physically, emotionally, and sexually abusive, along with being the Big Bad of the series. They have no familial bond and Satsuki literally backstabs her. The same goes for Ryuko, who finds out that Ragyo is her mother after learning of the full extent of Ragyo's crimes. Ryuko refers to Ragyo by name except for two points- when she's brainwashed into being Ragyo's slave and when she offers Ragyo a Last-Second Chance after defeating her.
• Lyrical Nanoha:
  • Vivio does this for her adoptive parents, but it's less a lack of respect and more for the sake of convenience since she has two moms and has to specify which one she's referring to in a conversation. It's also downplayed since she uses "mama" as an honorific and will occasionally just call Nanoha "mama" (Fate is exclusively "Fate-mama"). There is a single time where she just refers to them by name, but it was due to her suffering from Clone Angst and feeling unworthy of having parents.
  • Erio and Caro call Fate, who's technically their adoptive mother^note At least in Erio's case, Lindy is the actual legal guardian, since Fate was too young to play that role at the time, and whom they otherwise treat as such, "Fate-san."
  • In ViVid Strike!, Rinne briefly refers to her adoptive parents as "Dan-san and Lori-san" in her thoughts as she's considering parting ways with them and returning to the orphanage. It isn't out of disrespect, but a belief that she doesn't deserve to be with them, after brutally beating up her bullies and thus damaging her family's reputation.
• In Matoi the Sacred Slayer, Matoi calls her father Shingo by his first name. She doesn't do it out of disrespect, but after living away from him for so long, she finds it hard to refer to him as her father.
• Downplayed in Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Kanna always refers to Kobayashi by her last name, just like everyone else does. Her best friend Saikawa (who is under the impression that Kobayashi is Kanna's mother), notes how bizarre this is.
• Naruto has a sibling example. Sasuke calls his older brother, Itachi, with his name ever since the Uchiha Clan Massacre (aside from a few exceptions where he calls him big brother). This might not sound unusual in the West, but calling your older siblings (especially those who are quite a bit older than you; Itachi is 5 years older than Sasuke) by their names in Japan is considered extremely rude, on par with calling your parents by their names. Justified given how pissed off he is at Itachi for killing their entire clan. Upon finding out Itachi's true motives, however, he begins calling him "nii-san" again.
• As she grows up, Hana in Ojamajo Doremi uses "Mama" less to refer to her surrogate parents and calls them by name. It helps in the final season when she forces a Plot-Relevant Age-Up on herself and thus has to use their names so their classmates and teachers don't figure out the baby they knew is now a preteen.
• One Piece
  • Nami and Nojiko call their adoptive mother "Bellemere-san" ("Belle-mere" is French for "stepmother"). The two of them love her and consider her their mother, although Nami once upsets her by denying that they're "really" family during an argument.
  • Sanji angrily calls his father, Vinsmoke Judge, by name before cutting ties with him. Since they'd been estranged for years and Judge had only returned to his son's life to force him into an Arranged Marriage for political gain, it's clear that there is no love lost between them.
• Done in an interesting way for Chibiusa from Sailor Moon: She refers to the Usagi/Queen Neo Serenity and Mamoru in her time period as "mommy" and "daddy", but their modern-day counterparts by first name. This reflects how she basically treats them as different people from her parents, in particular acting more like a bratty little sister to Usagi than a daughter. Which is well enough, as a five-year-old calling a fifteen-year-old girl "mom" would probably get some very strange looks. Although at the end of the anime R season, Chibiusa does call Usagi "Mommy" before she returns to the future.
• In Stellvia of the Universe, Shima Katase only ever refers to her mother as "Chi-chan", indicating that there may be quite a bit of intergenerational rivalry going on. While it's never elaborated upon (it's not even clear whether Chi-chan is Shima's birth mother, or her father remarried), Shima's mom is a textbook example of a self-made woman, and Shima strives to be even more so, going as far as to effectively run away from home to enroll in a space university without telling her.
• 'In Crayon Shin-chan, Shin, in the early episodes, often refers to his parents by their names. This is, at least partially, him imitating them. As the show goes on, he begins referring to them properly, though occasionally still calling them by name.

Comedy

• The comedian Daniel Sloss includes a frequent joke in his stand-up routines that goes (roughly):
  "One of my parents was devastated when I moved out. I'll let you guess - you have two options, obviously. There's my loving, devoted, wonderful mother, or... my stepdad. I'll give you a hint: he's not actually my stepdad. I just call him that to piss him off - "Call me Dad!" "Haha, fuck off, Martin!"

Comic Books

• In the Chick Tracts "Born Wild!", a little boy disrespectfully calls his mother "Connie". After meeting his grandpa and converting to Christanity, he proceeds to call her "mom".
• Death: The High Cost of Living: Disaffected teen Sexton calls his parents Sylvia and Steve.
• Family: Talia calls her father Gio by his first name as a sign of rebellion, despite his pleas for her to call him "Dad". She finally does when Gio dies of a heart attack.
• Green Lantern: Soranik Natu refers to her father Sinestro^note technically, this is Last-Name Basis; his full name is Thaal Sinestro in this manner, due to him being an Archnemesis Dad. She does sometimes refer to their relationship in conversations with others, but makes it clear she'd rather have nothing to do with him.
• Robin (1993): Tim usually calls his father Dad when speaking to him, but when talking about him to others it's more common for Tim to refer to him as Jack. It's likely due to the fact that Jack wasn't around much when Tim was growing up and barely tried to get to know his son until sometime after Tim turned sixteen.
• In Thorgal, Thorgal and Aaricia's children Jolan and Louve both call their parents by their name. Only Louve occasionally called Aaricia "mama" in her earlier appearances. Oddly enough, no one ever comments on this.
• X-Men:
  • Deadpool has this with both of his daughters. Ellie used to refer to him as "Dad" or "Daddy", during volume 3, and early volume 4 of the series. Then issues 17, she starts calling him "Wade", saying that her therapist told her that she shouldn't consider him a father-figure. She does go back to calling him Dad, given the recent chapter 32 of volume 4. But 2099 shows she eventually goes back to just referring to him by name, which he protests to no avail. She didn't meet Deadpool until she was around 8. Then even after that, she was Happily Adopted by a friend of Deadpool. Warda has deep issues with Wade, feeling that he favored and loved Ellie over her. She also hated inheriting his legacy which was the healing factor, with repulsive face scarring.
  • The Stepford Cuckoos used to refer to their biological mother, Emma Frost, as "Miss Frost" up until recently when they began calling her "Mother" or "Mom" instead.
  • Cyclops and Jean Grey's children usually address them as Scott and Jean.
    • Cable usually calls them by their names despite having a decent relationship with them because of their Supernaturally Young Parent status and the fact that he's spent most of his life without them, though he has occasionally called Scott "Father" or "Dad" in serious situations. On the other hand, Cable's time-traveling teenaged self introduced in Extermination has no problem calling his parents Mom and Dad.
    • His sister Rachel Summers, Jean and Scott's Kid from the Future, similarly bounces back and force between calling her (sort-of) parents Mom and Dad or just by their names.
  • Wolverine's kids generally address him as "Logan", which is natural considering he didn't raise either of them. In Laura's case, she was genetically engineered from Logan's DNA and didn't meet him until she was 13. For years she was thought to be Logan's Opposite-Sex Clone before it was revealed she was actually his biological daughter, though by that point she had long since accepted him as her father. On the other hand, Daken (conceived the normal way) didn't meet Wolverine until well into adulthood and has hated his dad's guts since day one for abandoning him (albeit unintentionally) and also for a period when he believed he had killed his mother. Both have only ever called him "Dad" in rare moments of emotional honesty (or sometimes sarcasm in Daken's case).
• Yoko Tsuno:
  • Khany finds out that her mom Synda survived and put herself in suspended animation. As a result Khany and Synda have the same biological age. Uncomfortable to be called "mother", Synda asks Khany to see her as her sister and call her by name.
  • Later, Yoko adopts a chinese orphan named Rosée du matin (Morning Dew) who keeps calling her "Yoko". This is likely because she sees Yoko more like a Cool Big Sis and still remembers her actual mom.
• A storyline in Zits had Jeremy start calling his dad, Walt, by his first name; Walt was clearly bothered by this. He got Jeremy to stop by threatening to refer to him as his childhood nickname Mister Binky.

Fan Works

• Blackbird (Arrow): Laurel eventually starts referring to her mother as "Dinah" in her thoughts. This and her verbally referring to her as "our birth mother" is used to show that she no longer views Dinah as her mother.
• born of hell('s kitchen) has a complicated example: Matt and Jess are Peter's birth parents, but external factors led the boy to be adopted before coming back to their care. They don't want for the kid to feel he's betraying his adoptive family, so tell Peter to use their names but leave the possibility of switching to "Mom and Dad" open when he will feel more comfortable.
• In Boys und Sensha-dō!, Miho, after being disowned, once refers to her mother as Shiho when talking about her. It's unclear whether this is intended to be an intentional display of disrespect, since not only does Miho only do so once, but while Miho's relationship with her mother is fairly troubled, Miho is said to have long wanted her mother's approval.
• The Myth of Link & Zelda: Breath of the Wild, adapting events from the namesake game in a novelized format, expands upon the "Father and Daughter" memory seen in the canon game. In this, the confrontation is more adversarial between King Rhoam and Zelda, where she finally loses it on her father and calls him out on the way he's barely been a father to her since her mother died. She starts it out by calling him by his first name, and not even preceding it with "King", something that's very disrespectful, especially among royalty.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Fifth Path: Byleth almost always refers to Jeralt by his first name and when she doesn't she usually calls him father instead of dad.
• Invoked with Abusive Parent Scar inThe Future of Our Past. He refuses to let his daughter Zira call her "Dad".
• In His History Revealed: A Dr. Robotnik Biography, Robotnik calls his emotionally abusive and neglectful father Harold by his name.
• Jack O'Lantern: 14-year old Sarada calls her father "Sasuke" in an attempt at seeming more adult. At times she still lapses into "Papa".
• Lullabies and Fairy Tales: 7-year old Yang refers to her step-mother Summer as "Summer", despite Summer's insistence on being called "Mommy". It's a habit Yang caught prior to her half-sisterRuby's birth.
• Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami: At several points Sayu Yagami refers to her father Soichiro by his name. She does not do this with her mother, so it gets especially noticeable when she refers to both her parents as "Mom and Soichiro". It is treated pretty casually.
• RWBY: Scars: Yang's biological mother Raven abandoned her as a toddler. Yang didn't even know about her until her step-mother Summer died several years afterwards. Yang usually refers to Raven by name. When using a title, she uses a cold "Mother".
• Shining and Sweet: Mac begins to call his parents, Emilio and Kimiko, by their names after he moves from their house in with Doc Louis, out of anger for their Parental Neglect and constant fighting.
• Son of the Sannin:
  • Haku never refers to his foster parents as anything other than "Hayate-san" and "Yugao-san". For that matter, he always calls Zabuza "Zabuza-sama", even long after it becomes clear to both of them that their relationship is far more than that of a master and servant.
  • Shizune is treated as the eldest of Jiraya and Tsunade's children, though she only ever addresses them by name (or rank in the case of Jiraya after he becomes the fifth Hokage). The closest she gets for using familial terms with them is teasingly referring to Tsunade as her infant son's "grandma".
  • Naruto has a brief slip into this in Chapter 99, implied to be out of respect for the ghosts of his biological parents. Minato and Kushina however are fine with him calling Jiraiya and Tsunade "Dad" and "Mom", since they were the ones to raise him.
• In Things Jade Hates, Jade refers to her abusive mother as "Lily". She also refers to her neglectful father as "David".
• To Hell and Back (Arrowverse): After Barry's presumed death, Iris and Joe became estranged; when Iris learned about Francine and Wally, she disowned him and moved to Keystone with them after high school. When the readers finally get a glimpse of their relationship in the present, Iris addresses him by his title, "Detective West". She only moves on to "Joe" after Barry returns to Central and convinces her to mend their relationship.

Films — Animation

• In Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Mr. Peabody makes Sherman address him as "Mr. Peabody". It shows that he is somewhat emotionally distant, but only because he has difficulty expressing himself, as he genuinely likes to be called that.
• Invoked in My Little Pony: The Movie (1986), where Hydia outright forbids her daughters from calling her "Mama" or "Mother" and gets angry whenever they do.
• In Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Sosuke addresses his mother as Lisa. (In the English Dub he calls her Mom instead.) This may be a reflection of Lisa as a free spirit or cool mom, as they seem to have a very strong bond.
• In Tarzan, while the titular character always calls his adoptive mother, Kala, "mom" or "mother", he exclusively calls and refers to her mate by his name since Kerchak doesn't consider Tarzan his son until his death at the end of the film.
• Subverted in Up, when Russell mentions being told by Phyllis that he bugs his dad too much. Carl starts to chew him out for calling his mother by her name before Russell states that Phyllis isn't his mother, at which point Carl (likely understanding the implication that Russell's parents are divorced) drops the subject.

Films — Live-Action

• 3 Days to Kill: Zooey usually calls her father Ethan because they aren't close when the film begins, though he'd prefer Dad.
• Absolute Power (1997): Kate Whitney calls her father by his first name "Luther" since she disowned him over his Parental Abandonment.
• Harry Stamper's daughter Grace in Armageddon (1998) refers to her dad as "Harry" as a mark of her disrespect towards him.
• In Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Superman isn't shown to do this regularly, but he does happen to do so once, right before Batman kills him, and his plea to 'save Martha' just so happens to echo Thomas Wayne's last words, deeply resonating with Bruce, who them spares Superman. Good thing Supes happened to say that instead of the much more realistic and in-character request to 'save my mom'...
• Inverted in Ben 10: Race Against Time. Ben's parents want him to refer to them by their names; however Ben uses "Mom" and "Dad" instead.
• In Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Bill keeps accidentally calling his step mom Missy before correcting himself (though the first time she corrects him). In this case it's because Missy is only about three years older (she was a high school senior when Bill was a freshman), is his step-mother rather than his birth mother, and because he actually had the hots for her before she married his father.
• Bird Box: The children call Malorie by her name, never Mom, Mama etc. She in turn simply calls them "boy" and "girl" until the end of the film.
• Christine: Christine calling her mother "Peg" instead of "Mom" is a sign of Christine's worsening depression.
• In Curly Sue, she explains why she calls her father Bill: "Well...If I'm in a crowded place and I yell...'Dad!' 50 guys would turn around. If I yell 'Bill!' maybe two will turn around. It's a timesaver, really."
• Cut to the Chase: Max only calls his father Cotton, never "dad" or something similar, as they're not at all in a good place with each other.
• In the last two Die Hard movies, both Lucy in Live Free or Die Hard and John Jr. in A Good Day to Die Hard call their dad just "John". In both films it's clearly used to indicate the distant relationship they have with McClane, who's obviously better at saving the day than maintaining family relationships.
• Duck Butter: Sergio mostly calls her mother "Susana". The two have a difficult relationship, with Sergio expressing dislike of her mother's controlling actions, so it reflects that.
• Everything Everywhere All at Once: Jobu Tupaki, the Bagelverse counterpart of Joy Wang, calls Evelyn by her name, illustrating the growing distance between the mother and daughter as well as Jobu's enlightenment. When Evelyn achieves enlightenment herself and fights Jobu, she tells her to stop calling her by her name.
  Evelyn: Stop calling me Evelyn! I. Am. Your. Mother!
• Nelson from If You Could Say It in Words tells Sadie that he calls his dad "Michael."
• Juan of the Dead: Camila spends the whole movie calling Juan by his name. They are estranged because he was so irresponsible that her mother left him and moved to Spain with a young Camila. Near the end, the gang is ready to escape but he stays behind to fight. In tears, she begs him to come and calls him "papá".
• Love Story: Jenny calls her father Phil, likely to emphasize what a close and loving relationship they have as opposed to Oliver's incredibly tense relationship with his father.
• Margarita: Mali generally addresses her parents this way, due to both being pretty neglectful. They left her to be cared for by Margarita, who she feels much closer with as a result.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Ant-Man: Hope calls her father Hank throughout, stemming from her long-seated resentment toward him. She does, however, call him "Dad!" once after he gets shot, an event that happens after they've started working through what happened to Hope's mother (the cause of the rift between father and daughter), and in Ant-Man and the Wasp, she exclusively calls him "Dad."
  • After the events of Thor, where Loki discovers that he is adopted, Loki stops calling Odin his father and in the next three films (The Avengers,Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok) refers to him exclusively by name. Thor also refers to Odin by his name but still just as often refers to him as "father".
  • Not a direct parent, but a parent figure: the MCU's version of Spider-Man and his friends refer to Aunt May as just "May", which often acts as a stark contrast to how every other incarnation of Aunt May is referred to. That said, this change primarily is seen in Spidey's solo films - both Peter and Tony Stark do call her "Aunt May" in Captain America: Civil War.
• The Ring. Rachel Keller's son Aidan calls her Rachel. He's the product of a broken home (Rachel and her boyfriend broke up after having him), and things get stranger when he starts getting mental images from a ghost. Becomes a plot point in the sequel, when Rachel rightfully realizes something is wrong when Aidan starts calling her "Mommy".
• In Shadow of the Thin Man, little Nick Jr. calls his father "Nick". This is meant to show that Nick Charles is a "cool dad".
• Space Jam: When Moron Mountain is seen early in the film, an alien child calls his father Ray while telling him not to bring him to the park anymore.
• In The Spy Next Door, Bob notices that Farren calls Gillian by her first name instead of "Mom". When he talks to Farren about this, she explains that it is because Gillian is not her birth mom, but her stepmom.
• In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Han Solo's son Ben refers to his father by name. This is due to him having turned to the Dark Side and disowning his family.
• In the movie of State of the Union, Kay Thorndyke calls her dying father "Sam". Not that she doesn't care about him—she breaks down weeping after he kills himself. Calling him by his first name helps to emphasize the businesslike nature of their relationship; Mr. Thorndyke is a newspaper magnate and political kingmaker and Kay is his hard-as-nails heir.
• Threads: Ruth's daughter Jane (who is born around seven months after the nuclear war) calls her mother by her first name, though this is only shown when Ruth is on her deathbed. Jane, whose language skills are stunted like those of other kids born into the post-apocalyptic world, calls Ruth's name twice, then tries to get her to stir by saying "Work. Work. Work. Up!" However, once Ruth has actually died, Jane quietly withdraws. Why Jane doesn't call Ruth "Mum", or something to that effect, is not made clear, but it is implied to be because living in a world where they are surrounded by death has prevented them from forming the mother/daughter bond they might otherwise have formed.
• Tomorrow Is Forever: Elizabeth's sons call her "Liz", although it's friendly needling rather than a true lack of respect.
  Liz: Don't call me Liz!
• War of the Worlds (2005): Initially, Raymond's son Robbie calls him by his first name as a sign of teenage rebellion. However, after the Alien Invasion hits, he calls him "dad" while trying to convince him to let Robbie go fight the aliens.

Franchise

• With each incarnation of Alvin and the Chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore always refer to Dave by his name, though they much love and respect him as their father, and have even said a number of times that he's the best dad they could ever have. Maybe chipmunks just feel weird about calling a human "dad."
• While Batman clearly cares for his adopted wards as his sons, they rarely ever refer to him as their dad, prefering to call him "Bruce". It might be one part Bruce's emotional sterility and one part that those he takes in are still reeling from their own parental issues. This is part of what makes the climax of The LEGO Batman Movie work in that Bruce has finally opened up enough to allow Dick to call him "dad".
• Most adaptations of the Mega Man (Classic) series have Mega Man and Roll refer to Dr. Light primarily by his name even though they clearly consider each other family. Presumably, it has something to do with the fact that Mega Man and Roll are robots while Dr. Light is human. The comic book adaptation is probably the one where the two most frequently refer to Light as "dad".
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are adopted by Splinter and consider him their father but refer to him as "Master Splinter" most of the time because he trains them to be ninja. Later adaptations tend to downplay this by having them sometimes call him "father" or "dad". In Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they almost always call him "dad", which signifies how they respect him less than most versions (because he's both a Lazy Bum and an overprotective dad that refused to really train them for a long time) but also their closer bond compared to most incarnations (Splinter, for all his faults, does genuinely love the turtles, and they return it).

Literature

• In Jacqueline Wilson's novel Bad Girls, when Mandy dreams of "young and hip and stylish" parents, she calls them by their first names.
• In Being Bindy, Bindy's brother Kyle has called their mostly absent mother Adele for years.
• In Blindsight, Siri refers to his mother in the flashbacks as "Helen". In a large part because she ditched the real world for virtual reality. While he calls his father "Dad" sometimes and "Jim" other times.
• Bodacious Space Pirates: Main heroine Marika refers to her single mother as Ririka-san, without much explanation, only calling her proper variation of "mom" when announcing her decision to pursue that sudden chance of being a space pirate that starts the main plot. To some other people The Ace-y Marika admits on-screen to have always been inspired by Ririka and avidly admiring her, all the while not excessively aware of Ririka's past career as a famed space pirate.
• In Brave New World, John calls his mother "Linda", presumably because Linda was raised in a False Utopia where babies are grown in jars and motherhood is considered obscene. A Flash Back shows him calling her "Mother" to try and make her stop hitting him, and it didn't really help.
• In Bridge to Terabithia, Leslie calls her Hippie Parents by their first names, and it really bothers Jesse.
• In Brimstone Angels, Farideh and Havilar always call their adopted father by his name, Mehen. In this case, it's cultural; Mehen is a dragonborn (though his daughters aren't) and that's just how dragonborn do things. This is borne out when the dragonborn city of Djerad Thymar is visited later in the series and more dragonborn families are introduced.
• In Calico Joe by John Grisham, the narrator took to calling his estranged father Warren as an adult due to abuse and abandonment he suffered as a child. It becomes apparent that this wound will never heal even after his father’s death.
• In Call Me Sunflower, Sunny refers to her mom Rebecca as "Mom" and her dad as "Scott." Possibly because Scott isn't her legal father.
• Come Tumbling Down: Jack Wolcott prefers to forget about her Abusive Parents entirely after entering the Moors. When she does speak of her father, it's only to say, "Mr. Wolcott was a fool who should never have had children."
• Earth's Children:
  • After completing his manhood hunt Broud wastes no time asserting his new status by addressing his mother Ebra by name, instead of making the sign for "mother", and ordering her to bring him "a drink of water." It's not known if it's normal for Clan men to call their mothers by their names, but it fits in with Broud's arrogant nature that he should address Ebra in this way.
  • Among both the Clan and the Others, it's normal to call the mate of one's mother (who may or may not be one's biological father) by his name. Justified as neither the Clan nor the Others have any concept of men "having children" until Ayla introduces the idea that the act of sex itself (not a man's totem spirit defeating a woman's totem spirit as believed by the Clan, or a man's spirit mingling with a woman's spirit as believed by the Others) is responsible for conception. As such, there is no word (or gesture in the case of the Clan) for "father" in the language of any tribe featured in the series, though one is introduced into the Zelandonii language following Ayla's revelation.
• Endless Love is narrated by its protagonist, Troubled Teen David, and he almost always calls his parents Arthur and Rose, echoing his complex relationship with them.
• In The Evolution of Emily, August calls his laid-back dad Jason.
• In Gudrun Pausewang's novel The Final Journey, "Alice was astonished to hear the children calling their mother 'Ruth'. How extraordinary! She would never have thought of calling Mummy 'Lilli' or Daddy 'Leo'."
• In Freak the Mighty, Freak always calls his mother "Gwen", or "the Fair Guinevere". This seems to be a common habit among children doomed to Death by Newbery Medal.
• Lyra from His Dark Materials always refers to her parents as "Lord Asriel" and "Mrs Coulter". While this is originally because she doesn't know they are her parents, even after The Reveal she uses those names as she's not particularly close to either of them, even actively fighting one, the other, or both throughout the course of the series.
• In Bette Bao Lord's novel In The Year Of The Boar And Jackie Robinson, Emily tells Shirley: "[…] My father's a psychiatrist. My mother's a committeewoman. I have two older brothers and sisters, and we all are progressives." "It was only after Shirley went to Emily's house that she understood what her new friend had said. […] A progressive was someone who called her mother and father by their first names."
• In The Inkworld Trilogy by Cornelia Funke, protagonist Meggie calls her father "Mo", short for his actual name, Mortimer. They have a very good relationship, so it is likely he brought her up to call him that, or never bothered to get her to call him anything and she just picked up that he's "Mo" from her mother when she was little.
• From Life's Little Instruction Book:
  1061. Don't allow your children or grandchildren to call you by your first name.
• Livvie from Livvie Owen Lived Here would prefer to to call everyone by their name, including herself. She can remember to use pronouns most of the time when she's not too stressed out, but calling her parents anything other than Simon and Karen is too confusing for her.
• In Isabel Abedi's "Lola"-Series, the title character's best friend Flora usually calls her mother by her first name Penelope (it's never stated exactly why as they actually have an extremely tight bond and are not described as hippies or anything). There's one scene in Book 3, in which Penelope has an It's All My Fault moment, to which Flora reacts by saying: "Mom! Don't say that!". This is to this day the only time she has called her Mom.
• In the first book of The Lost Years of Merlin, although Branwen (a.k.a. Queen Elen of Fincayra) assures the amnesiac young Emrys that she's his mother, he doesn't believe her and only calls her "Branwen" – he feels sure that the many secrets she keeps from him include his real parentage. But as it turns out, she's telling the truth, and when Emrys learns this he breaks down in Tears of Remorse for having never called her "Mother".
• Marcelo from Marcelo in the Real World calls his parents "Arturo" and "Aurora."
• In the short story Meg and Dia wrote that was later adapted into their song "Monster", a boy with Abusive Parents is told to refer to his father and mother as "Sir" and "Hannah".
• In The Migax Cycle, Leafsong and Moonwafer call their parents by their first names.
• Les Misérables has a rare case where the parent requests this. After Cosette marries, her adoptive father Jean Valjean sadly distances himself from her so she'll never be disgraced by his past as a convict. He urges her to call him "Monsieur Jean", because he's not her "real" father and she "doesn't need a father" now that she's a married woman, and in turn starts calling her "Madame" instead of by her name. When they reunite as Valjean is dying, however, they once again address each other as "Father" and "Cosette."
• Monster of the Month Club: Sparrow insists on this from Rilla, "So Daughter would see Mother as Friend and not Authority Figure" (her justification for it). She also wants Rilla to not refer to her Aunt Poppy as "Aunt", but Rilla insists because it's what she considers the normal thing to do.
• Mouse (2017): Mouse's mom has always said that, since it's just the two of them, he should call her June. He didn't realize that the other kids called their parents "Mom" and "Dad" until he was in kindergarten.
• Kate's father in The Mysterious Benedict Society is revealed to be Milligan. Even after learning the fact, she still refers to him by his name.
• In Nim's Island, Nim refers to her dad as Jack.
• In One-Third Nerd, Dakota calls her mom Kimberly because she's "trying it out." Mom says, "The name Mom has been around for thousands of years. I think it's a keeper."
• In Oona Out of Orderthere is a downplayed version for teen Kenzie, who finds using his mothers' names rather than Mama F and Mama S in conversation is simpler. He does love them and addresses them as mom.
• Outlander:
  • Brianna doesn't learn the truth of her paternity until she is adult. She initially calls her biological father by his first name, Jamie. But as the two grow more accustom to each other, she switches to calling him Da. However, when Jamie makes a huge mistake that makes Brianna feel he has violated her trust in him, she switches back to calling him Jamie, insisting her real father (Frank, the man who raised her) would have never done what Jamie did.
  • When William learns the truth of his paternity, he doesn't feel it is right to continue calling the man who raised him "Papa" and mentally refers to him by his proper society title, Lord John. Understanding, his stepson's upset, Lord John takes this in stride, but knows something must have gone terribly wrong when William shows up unexpectedly, calling him "Papa" once again.
  • Invoked in a conversation between Jamie and Roger. Roger mentions meeting Brian Fraser, Jamie's father. Jamie retorts that he knows his own father's name. Roger asks if Jamie ever called his father by his first name. Surprised, Jamie asks if that's something people do in the century in which Roger was born. Roger says no, but he considered Reverend Wakefield as his father. Having not been raised with his biological father but aware of who the man was, Roger has only ever thought of him by his first name.
• In P.S. Longer Letter Later, Tara calls her parents "Barb" and "Luke" (or, when she's mad at them, "Barbara" and "Lucas"). They were only seventeen when Tara was born and their youthfulness is highlighted by their informal relationship with her.
  • In It's An Aardvark-Eat-Turtle World, also by Paula Danziger, Rosie has called her hippie single mother by her first name for years. "You haven't called me Mom since you were five years old, came home from kindergarten, and announced that since it was just the two of us, we'd be pals and on a first-name basis."
• The Running Grave: In the rare letters that Will Edensor, who has joined a cult, writes to his parents, he addresses them as "Colin and Sally." It is later revealed that everyone in the cult does this, referring to family members by names and never using family words like "father" or "mother". This is a tool the UHC uses to undermine and destroy the family ties of its members, so that they are only loyal to the cult.
• Lily from The Secret Life of Bees refers to her abusive father as "T.Ray". The only time she doesn't is during the final chapter. He mistakes her for her deceased mother in a crazed state, tries to attack her, and Lily snaps him out of it by calling him "Daddy".
• Bears in Seeker Bears usually refer to their mothers by their names past a certain age. Cubs switch between using "Mother" and their names depending on the context. Toklo calls his mother exclusively by his name after she abandons him as a cub. He goes back to using both "Mother" and her name after realizing she loved him after all.
• In The Silence of Murder, Hope and Jeremy's mother insists that they call her Rita.
• In Siren Novels, the siren Raina has her daughters call her by her name because she doesn't feel old enough to be the mom of teenagers.
• Small Persons with Wings: Mellie's father, Roly, always calls his father, Ogier, by his name because he disliked the word "dad."
• In So Totally Emily Ebers, Emily's mother suggests that Emily call her Alice as part of her attempt to redefine herself and her relationship with Emily after her divorce. At the end of the book, when they've come to understand each other better and her mom has reached some level of equilibrium, Emily admits that she misses calling her mother Mom, and her mother tells her she can start calling her Mom again if she wants to.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, durig the third book Jaime refers to his father as "Lord Tywin" after the latter disowns him, and Sam, whose father forced him to give up his birthright and join the Night's Watch, as "Lord Randyll."
• Strike the Blood has the Akatsuki sibling, protagonist Kojou and his younger sister Nagisa who refer to both their parents by their given names (with Akatsuki not bothering with honourifics, while Nagisa does). Nagisa doubles down by calling Kojou by his given name as well, rather than using one of the Japanese language's several terms for siblings. Kojou calling Nagisa by name doesn't count because that's normal.
• Sweet & Bitter Magic: Tamsin at first only calls her mother Vera or High Councillor (as her title is) given their estrangement, leaving it a surprise when their relationship gets revealed.
• In Sword Art Online, Yui, an Artificial Intelligence who becomes Kirito and Asuna's daughter, does this with her parents after getting her memories back. It's partly because she's realized she is an artificial construct, and partly to show that she's gotten over her speech impediment that left her unable to properly pronounce their names.
• Michael Cypher from the Sword of Truth series had a habit of calling his father "George". One of the first thing foreshadowing him working for the Big Bad.
• In Things I Should Have Known, Chloe calls her mom Jeannie while talking to other people, for reasons she's not entirely sure of.
• This Side of Paradise: From a young age, Amory refers to his mother by her name, Beatrice, who doesn't seem to mind and even encourages it with the narration stating that it's such a quaint name for a mother.
• In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and her brother address their father as 'Atticus', in stark contrast to Southern American culture, where children are expected to show a great deal of respect to their parents. It shows Atticus' generally egalitarian views (a key part of the main story) carry into how he deals with his own family as well. It could suggest the kids (who grew up without their mother) were not taught proper respect, but the kids are otherwise very respectful and well behaved and the familiarity doesn't bother Atticus at all. They refer to him as 'Sir' at times as well, which is more in-line with the culture, and shows that the power dynamic still exists in their relationship.
• The Twilight Saga: Bella is not very close to her father and always refers to him as "Charlie" when he's not around and when she's talking about him. When she speaks to him she tries to call him "Dad", but is very uncomfortable about it. Jake also refers to his father as "Billy".
• In the Ray Bradbury short story, "The Veldt", Peter and Wendy call their father by his first name when he turns off the nursery, signifying the contempt they feel for him.
• In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, during Lewis's Author Filibuster about how Eustace's upbringing made him an obnoxious brat, one of the points is that he calls his parents Harold and Alberta. Though that's likely not because he is a brat but because his parents told him to.
• In Warrior Cats, it's usually only young kits that might call their parent "Mama" or something to that effect. It's most common for characters to call their parents by their actual name, so it stands out and really emphasizes the family bond when they don't call them by their name. For instance, in Dawn, when a tree falls on Firestar, Squirrelpaw first cries his name, and then yowls "Father!".
• In Wish, Charlie refers to her father by his nickname, Scrappy.

Live-Action TV

• At the start of the eighth season of 24, Kim's daughter calls Kim's father Jack, by name, whereupon he corrects her and asks her to call him "Grandpa."
• Arrow
  • This becomes an issue when Thea discovers her biological father is not the deceased Robert Queen, but supervillain Malcolm Merlyn, whom her mother had an affair with. Whom she refers to as "Dad" depends on her relationship with Malcolm at the moment, whom she gradually becomes disillusioned with.
  • In Flash Forwards, William generally refers to his step-mother as "Felicity", even though he explicitly sees her as his mother. The fact that Blackstar also refers to her as "Felicity" is used to disguise the fact that she is actually Mia Smoak, Felicity's daughter and William's half-sister. After the reveal, they alternate between using "Felicity" and "mom", but when speaking to her they always use "mom".
• Better Things: Sam's kids often call her "Sam". Conversely, she uses "Phyllis" or "Phyl" for her own mom frequently. In their case, it's just because they're a laid-back bunch.
• Beverly Hills, 90210. Brandon frequently referred to his parents as "Jim and Cindy", though never to their faces.
• In the early seasons of Boy Meets World Topanga addresses her Hippie Parents by their first names. In later seasons they drop the hippie angle, and she simply refers to them as her mom and dad.
• Subverted in The Brady Bunch episode "Our Son, the Man". As a high school freshman, Greg feels like an adult, and says good morning "Mike" and "Carol" to his parents at breakfast. Mike says that despite what he considers to be a fad, the rule at the Brady house stands: they are still to be addressed as "Mom" and "Dad".
• Clarissa Explains It All: In one episode where Ferguson thinks he's a genius, he starts referring to his parents by name, Janet and Marshal. Janet is initially shocked, but Marshal quickly puts a stop to it.
  Marshal: I Dad, she Mom, you Ferguson.
• Control Z: Sofia calls her mom "Nora" half the time. Her mom doesn't seem to care.
• Conversations with Friends: Frances sometimes calls her father “Dennis” not “Dad”, as she's not very close with him, only even visiting due to obligation since she dislikes his lack of affection to her.
• In Coronation Street, David Platt refers to his mom by her name "Gail", a continuation from his teenage contempt towards her.
• Dark Desire: Zoe often calls her mother Alma, though she does say "mom" as well sometimes. Alma doesn't seem to mind. She sometimes calls her father Leonardo as well, which he also pays no mind. This seems to be just a part of her independent streak, as she still has a good relationship with both.
• Dharma's parents from Dharma & Greg are classic Hippie Parents who raised her to call them by their first names, Larry and Abby.
• Doctor Who: River Song often refers to her parents by their first names. Of course, since she met them years before she was born (in fact, she grew up with them as their best friend) and couldn't hint at who she was for fear of damaging the timeline, this is understandable. She only calls them "Dad" and "Mother" after they become aware of their relationship.
• In the first season of Drake & Josh, Drake, Josh, and Megan had no problem calling their stepparents "Mom" and "Dad". But in later seasons, Drake and Megan usually refer to Walter by his first name. Walter sometimes asked when they started calling him "Walter".
• ER. When his estranged father resurfaces, Doug Ross continually calls him by his first name, "Ray", demonstrating their lack of a relationship and his lack of respect for him. The one time he calls him "Dad", it's in a very sarcastic manner that makes it clear that he's anything but that.
• In a Deleted Scene from Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray greets Marie by her name, much to her disdain; he tells her he's "Just practicing", but she is not amused.
• Everything Now: Mia refers to her mom as Vivian, a sign of disconnect between them.
• In the first season of Finding Carter, Carter calls her birth mother Elizabeth to show that she still thinks of Lori, who abducted and raised her, as her mother.
• In the episode "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse" of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will calls his biological father Lou after he has a new excuse as to why he can't spend time with his son. The ending shows that Uncle Phil is probably the closest thing Will has to a father.
• In one of the flashbacks in the Friends episode "The One With All The Thanksgivings", when Ross is back home from college and hears Rachel say she's tired of boys and wants to date men, he attempts to demonstrate his maturity by calling his parents Jack and Judy. The effect is spoiled by Monica's disbelieving "Call them Mom and Dad, you loser!"
• Fringe: Peter Bishop calls Walter Bishop "Walter." At first Peter has no affection for Walter, due to Walter having spent 17 years in an asylum after killing his lab assistant, and during which Peter's mother took her own life. In the second season Peter finally calls Walter "Dad", only to find out that his real father was "Walternate" from the other dimension. He goes back to calling his father "Walter" (except for rare occasions) for the rest of the series.
• Stephanie on Full House befriends a girl who does this and generally acts unconventionally, which really irks her father.
  Danny: (the girl has just left saying she needs to help 'Sharon' with dinner) Sharon's her sister?
  Stephanie: Her mom.
  Danny: She calls her mother Sharon?
  Stephanie: (enthusiastically) Yeah, isn't that cool, Danny?
  Danny: (Death Glare)
  Stephanie: ...er, Dad?
• The George Lopez Show: George does this with his father Manny. To be fair, the man abandoned George and his mother when George was just a child. George also does this to his mother Benny sometimes when she's at her worst.
• Gilmore Girls: Lorelai often refers to her parents by their first names to highlight her distance from them, though this is almost exclusively to other people and not when she's interacting with them. Similarly, Jess calls his mother by her first name due to their strained relationship.
• The Good Place: As part of their carefree Floridian nature, Jason refers to his dad by his name Donkey Doug. This comes as a shock to his friends and the audience — he's been mentioning Donkey Doug ever since Season 1, but only reveals in Season 3 that they're actually related. Jason once tries calling him Donkey Dad during a father-son bonding moment, but the two of them decide it doesn't sound as nice. Doug explains in the last episode that he was only 18 when Jason was born and "he raised me as much as I raised him", so it's understandable their relationship is more like friends than father and son.
• Alicia's daughter Grace on The Good Wife, referred to her by her first name a couple times when upset at her, which Alicia was not pleased by.
• In the new version of Hawaii Five-0, Danno's daughter Grace address him by his nickname. He sees no problem with this since they do this a lot out of familial love.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Starting from the final scene of "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart", Claudia addresses Louis only by his given name instead of "Daddy Lou" because she wants to be treated like his sister (and they are technically vampire siblings because Lestat is their maker) instead of his daughter. However, it's Zig-Zagged when she interacts with Lestat because she switches between using his name and "Uncle Les."
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Dee and Dennis call Frank by his first name. Somewhat justified in that they only started after learning he's not their biological father.
• In Kenan & Kel, Kenan starts to suspect he might be adopted and when he goes to find out, he says goodbye to "Roger" and "Sheryl". When Sheryl tells Kenan not to call them by their first names, Kenan responds with "Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Rockmore."
• Legends of Tomorrow: Nate Heywood calls his father "Hank" because of their strained relationship. He starts calling him "dad" when they reconnect in season 4 but still refers to him by name behind his back especially after learing that Hank is working with Neron.
• Lamb Chop's Play-Along: Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, and Charlie Horse refer to Shari Lewis by her first name, while she refers to each of them as her kids.
• Murderville: In the second episode, the killer was one of Cora's triplets, who spray-painted "Mom" on the wall of her house. Charles is disqualified from being the murderous son because he calls her "Cora".
• Meredith's awful son, Jake on The Office calls her "Meredith". Dwight says "that's so disrespectful", whereupon the boy embarrasses Dwight, by insulting him and calling him Mr. Poop, but Dwight humiliates Jake at the conclusion of the episode though.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • Emma doesn't believe Mary Margaret and David are her parents for the entire first season, and it's not until the end of season 3 that she actually feels comfortable calling them Mom and Dad. Unsurprising, since thanks to the Dark Curse freezing time in Storybrooke for 28 years, they're the same biological age as she.
  • Henry initially calls his biological mother Emma by her first name (at Emma's request) since he didn't meet her until age 10, and Emma initially doesn't want to step on his adoptive mother's toes or claim custody of Henry. He then switches between "Emma" and "Mom" for a while before finally settling on "Mom." He also sometimes refers to his adoptive mother as "Regina" when he's angry at her. By Season 4, he's happily calling them both "Mom."
• In an episode of One Day at a Time where Ann's daughter Barbara is going to a local college, Ann surprises Barbara by signing up for the same class. When Barbara sees her, she calls her "Ann" instead of Mom and pretends they just know each other from school rather than let everyone else in class know that she's her mother. (It helps that, due to divorce, they have different last names.) Ann reluctantly goes along with it.
• Mack does this to his father creator, genius Andrew Hartford in the final few episodes of Power Rangers Operation Overdrive.
• Reba: Brock referred to his deceased Jerkass father as "John D.", his first name and middle initial.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures:
  • Inverted, where Sarah Jane tells her Artificial Human adopted son Luke to call her by her name because she doesn't want him to feel like he has to call her "Mum". When he does so, his friend Maria calls him on it and tells him to call her "Mum" instead, despite what Sarah Jane told him to do. Luke does, and she likes it.
  • Played straight with Sky, adopted by Sarah Jane in the last season. Despite being Happily Adopted, she hasn't called Sarah Jane "Mum" yet. But then, Sky's also an alien and isn't quite used to Earth customs.
• Saturday Night Live: Pat Riley refers to one of Pat's equally-ambiguous parents by first name, Frances (or Francis?). Justified in that since Pat's other parent Jean/Gene left the family for "that thing" Frances/Francis has had to act as both mother and father to Pat.
• Schitt's Creek: Alexis Rose, when working on her father's motel's PR, calls him Johnny. He says he doesn't "love it" when she does that.
• Scrubs: In one of his rants about his personal life, Dr. Perry Cox says that "I am in love with a woman that I hate and my two-year-old son calls me Pewwy". Jack is sometimes heard calling Dr. Cox "daddy", though, he's simply mimicking Jordan.
• Sex Education: In Season 2, Maeve constantly refers to her mother with her real name "Erin".
• In Shameless (US), the Gallagher kids all refer to their father Frank and mother Monica by their given names as a way of showing their lack of respect and trust for their parents. It's justified by the fact that Frank is an utterly useless alcoholic and drug abusing layabout (on his best days) while Monica is immature to the point that she's frequently abandoned the kids to get up on whatever flight of fancy has caught her attention. The Milkovitch kids also do this to their father Terry, who is even worse than Frank in how he abuses his children.
• She's Gotta Have It: Nola usually calls Stokes, her dad, by his given name. He doesn't mind, and she explains this being an eccentric artist trait.
• Despite Step by Step having a similar premise to The Brady Bunch, the kids of the family refer to their respective stepparents as Frank and Carol, perhaps partly due to their not getting married until after the series begins and partly due to their respective children knowing and disliking each other from prior encounters at school and objecting to everyone becoming one family. The kids bond enough to start treating each other as true siblings after a couple of years, but even so, the only one of the children who doesn't refer to either Frank or Carol by name is Lily, the daughter they eventually have together.
• Stranger Things:
  • Jonathan Byers refers to his estranged deadbeat dad Lonnie Byers as "Lonnie".
  • According to the official novel Rebel Robin, Robin used to refer to her Hippie Parents by their first names until she learned it wasn't common.
  • In season 4, the Big Bad Lord Vecna refers to his father as "old, blind, dumb Victor" while revealing himself to Nancy. Given that Vecna is a psychopath who murdered his own mother and sister before framing up said father, it's hardly surprising.
• Supergirl (2015): When Cat Grant fails to reconnect with her estranged son Adam, the latter angrily leaves saying "Thank for dinner, Cat".
• Supernatural: When Dean finds out that Mary is working with the Men of Letters who kidnapped and tortured Sam, he calls his mother "Mary" instead of "Mom" as he argues with her. For a person who has established over 12 seasons that family is the most important thing in life to him, the change speaks much louder than yelling ever could. He also refers to his father as "John" for the first time in a deleted scene from the final season, indicating character development.
• On Tales from the Loop, the young Loretta calls her mother "Alma" because she doesn't like being called "Mom."
• Scott from the rebooted show Teen Wolf refers to his dad, Rafael, by his first name when he returns because he doesn't feel connected to him by anything other than blood. To the point where he also calls him a "gene donor".
  • Allison calls her grandfather Gerard by name as she last saw him when she was 3. Her father knows something is wrong when she calls Gerard "grandpa".
  • Malia calls her father Peter Hale by name. This is understandable since he's a notorious villain.
• In That '70s Show, the Foreman siblings refer to their parents by their names unless they're in front of them (or at least the parent they're talking about since they'll refer to Red by his name when talking to their mother).
• True Lies (2023): Gib only calls his father "Al" starting out in "Independent Dependents" as a mark of their poor relationship, which he started doing in middle school. By the end, they've patched things up and he calls him "Dad" again.
• Vida: Emma never calls her parents anything but their given names, because she is/was estranged from them both.
• You Me Her: Ava calls both her mom and dad by their first names, which is just because it amuses her how much this annoys both of them.

Toys

• In G1 of My Little Pony "baby ponies" were prone to referring to their mothers by their name. It only made the fact they look exactly alike and have the same names more noticeable.

Theatre

• In Bye Bye Birdie, Kim MacAfee calls her parents by their names, claiming it's the modern thing to do.
• In Keeper, Avalon calls her grandparents by their names, Lloyd and Hilda, out of fury at them for taking custody of her away from Constance, her mother's best friend.
• Marie from Perfect Pie calls her father 'Erwin' to show how little she respects him due to his extreme Parental Neglect and enablement of her mother's physical abuse.

Video Games

• In Borderlands 2, Angel refers to her father Jack by name, partially to hide the twist and partially because she genuinely loathes him.
• Justified in Dishonored because for most of Emily's childhood, she did not know Corvo was her father and had always referred to him by name even if he was a paternal figure in her life. Essentially the name "Corvo" was more or less the title "Dad" to Emily. Even when their relationship was officially revealed, Emily still called him by name.
• Dot's Home: Dot time travels to key points in her family's past to learn how they survived discrimination against Black people. In order to hide from them that she's from the future, she calls her parents and grandparents "Mr./Mrs. Hawkins" instead of "Mom", "Dad", "Grandma", or "Grandpa".
• Fabulous: Angela's High School Reunion: Chloe does this to her mother, Janet Morgan, when confronting her about her real father, at the end of Level 44.
  Chloe: Who is my father, Janet? Tell me!
  Janet: "Janet"?! No, no, no! Chloe, this really isn't the right time to talk about this!
• Final Fantasy XII: Balthier calls his Archnemesis Dad, Dr. Cid, by that name. He might have even called him that since before their falling out, since Balthier was a Judge while Cid is Vayne's right-hand man. On the flipside, Cid refuses to call Balthier by anything but "Ffamran", his birth name.
• Fire Emblem:
  • A variant in Genealogy of the Holy War. In the original Japanese, Tine uses respectful familial titles on her uncle Bloom and her cousins Ishtore and Ishtar, but simply refers to her aunt Hilda by name, because she despises Hilda for her cruel treatment of Tine's mother Tailtu.
  • In The Blazing Blade, Nino eventually starts referring to her mother, Sonia, by name. Considering that Sonia is not only a horrifically Abusive Parent to Nino, but is not actually Nino's mother (having murdered Nino's real parents, then raised her on Nergal's orders), this is entirely justified.
  • In Radiant Dawn, if Pelleas survives long enough, he will start calling his mother "Lady Almedha" rather than "Mother," having realized she is not actually his mother.
  • Gerome in Awakening has a tendency to do this, as he had preferred being a lone wolf and wanted to avoid too much contact with his parents, who died in his time.
    • In the scene in which Lucina reunites with her father in Chapter 12, shortly after her conversation with Chrom, her mother- The Female Avatar, Sumia, Maribelle, Sully or Olivia- will join her, initially not recognizing Lucina as her daughter. Lucina initially addresses Sumia and Sully by name (and uses "Milady" on the Female Avatar, Maribelle or Olivia), unsure of how they'd take being called "Mother", until her mother insists it's perfectly fine. After this point, Lucina exclusively uses "Mother" on her mother unless the Female Avatar is her mother, in which case, Lucina once says, "I am sorry, Avatar!" when threatening to kill her to save Chrom's life.
  • In Fates, on the Birthright path, Corrin almost exclusively calls his/her father "King Garon" or just "Garon", since while Garon raised Corrin, Corrin realizes that Garon is responsible for many atrocities, from abducting Corrin as an infant to manipulating Corrin into inadvertently causing the death of his/her mother, Queen Mikoto, and has sworn to defeat Garon. Corrin even calls Garon "old man" after learning that Garon doesn't care about Elise and Xander's deaths.
  • In Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Sonya calls her father Jedah by his name if she faces him in Act 4. This is understandable because Jedah offered the souls of her sisters to the Evil God Duma and Sonya resents him for this.
  • Three Houses,
    • The protagonist, Byleth, refers to their father Jeralt by name in a few dialogue choices, but it's unclear whether they do so on a regular basis. Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes would expand upon this and clarify that Byleth calls their father by their name frequently.
    • Ashe, the adoptive son of Lord Lonato, calls Lonato by name rather than "Father" or "Lord Lonato."
  • In Engage, most of Sombron's surviving children refer to their father by name, due to hating him for how he treated his children as expendable pawns, and thus no longer considering him a father. The only exceptions are both of Veyle's personalities- the former has some affection for her "Papa" despite wanting to stop him, while the latter is fanatically loyal to him- as well as Rafal on occasion. Additionally, Alear, the protagonist turns out to be Sombron's child, but continues calling Sombron by name after The Reveal, due to not considering Sombron to be a father.
• Grandia III: Yuki always calls his mother, Miranda, by her name. When asked about it, he answers that it just feels right. Although it helps that for the most part Miranda looks and acts more like his sister, rather than mother.
• In Hometown Story, Haruka always refers to her mother, Miyo, by her first name. This may be because Miyo is a Cloud Cuckoolander to the extreme, and while Haruka is Miyo's daughter, she's also clearly the one who keeps her mother on the straight and narrow. The two clearly love each other nonetheless.
• In Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy calls her adoptive father Rost by his name.
• Due to their rocky relationship, Rean from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel refers to his father as Giliath Osborne or just Chancellor Osborne without calling him Father or Dad. He finally calls him dad in their final conversation in Cold Steel IV as he finally understood why his father had to do the things he did throughout the series..
• In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Marin refers to her father, Tarin, by name.
• Sean Diaz, the protagonist of Life Is Strange 2, refers to his and Daniel's estranged mother by her first name, Karen, because he resents her for abandonning them when they were young. Interrestingly, Karen herself never corrrects him.
• Persona 5:
  • Futaba calls Sojiro, her adoptive father and a long-time friend of her mother's, by his given name. Late in Sojiro's Confidant, there is one exception- when some family court officials show up to investigate her living situation, she says how happy she is "living with (her) dad", although she tries to play it off when he later asks her about it.
  • In Akechi's case, He doesn't want to reveal to Shido yet that he's his son until he's helped him reach the height of his popularity before making it crumble along the rest of Japanese society. Unfortunately, part of Shido had already suspected it because of his apparent resemblance to his mother, and would have gotten rid of him anyway to tie up all loose ends.
• Gladion from Pokémon Sun and Moon refers to his mother Lusamine by her name in order to emphasise his poor relationship with her.
• Moira in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 calls her father, Barry, by name due to their very strained relationship that stemmed from an accident when Moira was a little girl. She and her sister Polly gotten access to Barry's gun cabinet because he forgot to lock it up. Moira was playing with one of Barry's guns and accidentally shot Polly. Barry blamed Moira for the accident, which caused her to grow resentful towards him and she grows irritated if anyone mentions her father to her. By the end of the story, the two make up and Moira starts calling Barry dad again.
• In the Star Trek Online mission "Sphere of Influence" Captain Koren of the IKS Bortasqu' addresses her stepfather Worf by name rather than by calling him "Father". According to the game's Back Story Worf married her mother Grilka when Koren was about eleven.
• Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life does this if you have a nonbinary player character — rather than appending Mama or Papa to your name, your child will just call you by your name.
• In The Suicide of Rachel Foster, Nichole refers to her father as Leonard after she got alienated from her because of his relationship with Rachel.
• Tell Me Why has both Tyler and Alyson refer to their mother Mary-Ann by her name, which is unsurprising given their mixed feelings about her and their involvement in her death.
• Tekken has Kazuya calling his father Heihachi by name, which is an obvious sign of his hatred towards him. His son, Jin, followed suit for the same reason.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt:
  • Ciri always calls Geralt and Yennefer, her foster parents, by their names when speaking to them. Considering that Ciri had a tumultuous childhood with about a dozen parental figures, this is understandable. However, when speaking to others when they're not around, she always calls Geralt her father. In fact, she does it so much that the people of Velen seem to be under the impression that she is Geralt's biological daughter, even though this is impossible (witchers are sterile).
  • Geralt himself calls his mother Visenna by her name during their brief encounter in both Sword of Destiny and The Witcher (2019). In his case, it's implied that he resents her for abandonning him.
• In the meta for the multigame history of You Don't Know Jack, the goth 4 for Question Four in Full Stream^note The version of YDKJ included in Jackbox Party Pack 5 is child of the 4 that was murdered in YDKJ 2011. One of the possible Question Four intros in Full Stream has another 4 with a "#1 Stepdad" had looking over its shoulder, and the question has the subtitle "the question that needs some space, Brian".

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney has Dahlia Hawthorne refer to her mother by name while her spirit is being channeled during the final trial of Trials and Tribulations. Dahlia despises her mother for understandable reasons, even if she's rather hypocritical about it.
• In Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino, Tsubaki Tougo mostly calls his parents by their first names (Yaichi and Akane respectively).
• In Heart of the Woods, Morgan refers to her mother Evelyn by name, since the two have an extremely cold relationship. It turns out that Evelyn is not actually Morgan's mother, but a Body Surfing fairy who has survived for centuries by stealing other people's bodies. She apparently stole Morgan's mother's body and plans to do the same to Morgan herself.

Web Animation

• Helluva Boss: Loona refers to her adoptive father Blitzo by name instead of "dad". Being an Adult Adoptee, she has trouble seeing Blitzo as her father. She almost slips and called him "dad" in "Spring Broken", but then growls and corrects herself.

Webcomics

• In Air Force Blues, during one conversation, Ken "Barbie" Dahl addresses his father as "Chief Dahl" before being told that "Dad is fine." Justified considering that they're both in the Air Force and have to keep things professional.
• Aries Cashworthy of Cirque Royale doesn't let his children Diana and Leo call him dad. They're expected to call him "Mr. Cashworthy."
• Erin of Dragon City initially referred to her mom as "Rachel", though she called Sam "Dad". Only after finally gaining some respect for her did she stop calling Rachel by name.
• In El Goonish Shive, Noah called his adoptive father Adrian Raven by name at his insistence. Although given Raven's reaction when Noah called him "Dad" by accident, it seems likely he just didn't want to push Noah into calling him "Dad" if he didn't want to.
• Girl Genius: Agatha calls her foster parents by their given names, though she refers to them as her parents when talking about them to other people.
• In Kevin & Kell, this is seen in both the elder children of the Dewclaw family:
  • Although their relationship has matured over the years, especially as they bonded over Rudy's unexpected talent for gardening, Rudy never calls Kevin "Dad". He does refer to Kevin as his stepfather to others, but he always calls Kevin by his first name. He still thinks of his biological father, Randy Foxglove, as his "Dad"...in spite of his later-revealed flaws.
  • Lindesfarne starts calling her adoptive mother Angelique by name when temporarily staying with her, since Lindesfarne no longer considers Angelique her mother. Her feelings are justified, considering that Angelique never made any serious attempt to get close to Lindesfarne, and abandoned her and Kevin. Unlike Rudy, she has alternately called Kell both "Mom" and by her first name. This owes to Lindesfarne and Kell having connected much more fluidly than Rudy and Kevin.
• In Sandra and Woo, Larisa always addresses, and refers to, her parents by their names, Ivan and Jelena. It's just a small part of her Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.

Web Original

• Furry Basketball Association: Rolf Korber, head coach of the Huntsville Mayors, made it seem like he wanted to pick his son Klaus Korber as a new player. However, he pulled a fast one on everyone, Klaus included, by making a more strategic pick. Not only didn't father and son talk for quite some time, but when Klaus's team, The Tallahassee Typhoons, defeated the Mayors, Klaus said he was very proud to have defeated "Mr. Korber's" team. This, more than losing to his son, apparently threw Rolf for a loop.
• In the Game Grumps, Danny Sexbang has mentioned more than once that he calls his mom and dad by their first names (Debbie and Avi, respectively) and his grandmother "Mom". Unlike most examples, this has a rather innocuous reason: when he was learning how to talk as a toddler, he heard people around him calling his parents by their real names and his mom calling his grandmother "Mom", so he assumed that's what he was supposed to call them. His family have no problem with it, as once when someone caught Danny calling his mom by her first name and called it disrespectful, she nonchalantly said "It's just a name".

Western Animation

• 101 Dalmatian Street has this with one pup, Dawkins, who refers to Doug (the father of half of the pups and the step-father of the other half) by his first name, where all 98 other pups refer to him as "Dad".
• Adventure Time: When Finn first meets his Disappeared Dad, he calls him "Dad", but his father tells him to call him "Martin" instead, because he isn't comfortable being a father, right before he abandons him at the Citadel. The second time they meet, Finn calls him Martin most of the time, but uses "Dad" when he's saying something important or emotional.
• Carl from As Told by Ginger often refers to his mom Lois as "Lola" and more rarely just "Lois". Carl is eccentric and unusual but it's not meant to be disrespectful. He has a less than pleasant relationship with his absentee father and refers to him as his given name.
• Bob's Burgers: In "Broadcast Wagstaff School News", part of Gene's imitation of his father Bob involves calling his mother "Lin". Bob, of course, disapproves, while Linda can't get enough of it.
• Zig-zagged in BoJack Horseman. Hollyhock calls BoJack (whom both initially believe to be her biological father) by his name upon finding him; she explicitly states that she has no interest in forming a father-daughter bond with him (as she's Happily Adopted by eight dads), and is hanging around him only so she can find her birth mother. Eventually, it turns out that Hollyhock is not BoJack's illegitimate daughter, but rather his much-younger half-sister (having been conceived from an affair BoJack's father had with his younger maid), so Hollyhock calling BoJack by his name is appropriate. However, when she finally finds her birth mother, she refers to her as Henrietta while talking to BoJack, though more likely out of not knowing her well rather than not being interested in connecting, since she does mention that Henrietta seems nice.
• Camp Lazlo: In a flashback, Edward is shown calling his mother "Suzan". Unusually for this trope, he's later shown to be a Momma's Boy.
• In Danny Phantom, the title hero always calls his parents by their first names when in superhero form (as to not reveal his identity to them). One episode had Danny secretly gushing over how cool it is to call his dad by his first name. At the end of said episode, Jazz does this herself and admits that it does sound cool.
• Family Guy:
  • The show has Stewie referring to his mother as "Lois". In earlier seasons, this was a sign of his Enfante Terrible nature and disdain for his mother. Ironically, he hates Peter less, but calls him by the even more insulting "fat man". When his adult self does call them "mom and dad" he immediately and violently 'corrects' himself with "It's Lois and the fat man!"
  • In "Don't Make Me Over", it's a sign of her Acquired Situational Narcissism when Meg starts calling her mom "Lois".
• Gargoyles:
  • Inverted. Goliath is initially upset when his daughter Angela calls him "father" because Gargoyle tradition holds that every child is viewed as the offspring of the whole clan. He later eventually acknowledges her as his daughter.
  • Played straight in season 3 episode "Generations". After bonding with her evil mother Demona, Angela learns that she was scheming to kill Goliath. Angela then rejects Demona's apology.
    Angela: Save it for your next performance, Demona!
• On Guess How Much I Love You, all of the characters refer to each by their full names and this includes Little Nutbrown Hare calling his father Big Nutbrown Hare.
• In The Herculoids, Zandor and Tara's son Dorno always refers to his parents by their first name, not once calling them "father" or "mother". This doesn't seem to be a sign of disrespect (it's not that sort of show), that's just how they do things.
• All throughout Hey Arnold!, Helga almost always refers to her parents by their first names — Bob and Miriam — as they often neglect her, and as such, she has little respect or emotional attachment to them; any instances where she does refer to them as "Dad" or "Mom' are incredibly rare. The times she does call her parents "Dad" or "Mom" are often times when her parents show care for her or show a skill, as a sign that she recognizes/respects it.
• A new family who moves to town in King of the Hill features a girl with classic "cool parents" who want her to call them by their first names. Hank of course is appalled.
• There's a couple of isolated incidents in The Legend of Korra where Tenzin and Bumi refer to their father as 'Aang' and not 'Dad.' Given the context of the scenes (Tenzin is encouraging Avatar Korra by explaining that Aang also had trouble learning a particular type of bending due to it being the opposite of his personality and Bumi is angrily telling Tenzin that he'd be willing to carry on Aang's legacy too), it seems to be a conscious decision to separate Avatar Aang, the historical and political figure, from 'Dad,' the guy that was just their dad. When they're talking "to" him, they both address him as 'Dad.' Suyin does the same when she explains to Korra that Toph was a pretty hands-off mother, and Iroh also refers to his mother as "The Fire Lord" when he's telling Korra to seek her help.
• My Little Pony:
  • Spike in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic always calls Twilight by her name, even though he acknowledges that he was raised by her and sees her as a parent in "Father Knows Beast". Then again, an episode in Season 9 clarifies that he was raised by Twilight's parents, not Twilight herself, and therefore their relationship is more Like Brother and Sister.
  • My Little Pony: Make Your Mark:
    • Misty always refers to Opaline by her name or honorifics such as "your highness"- never as her mother.
    • After reuniting with her father Alphabittle, Misty calls him by his name due to her forgetting about him after years of separation, so he tells her to call him "Dad".
• In the OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes episode "Big Reveal", when K.O. learns the identity of his father, Laserblast (whom he believes to be dead), he initially refers to him as "my daddy". Then he learns that Laserblast is actually still alive, and now living under the identity of Professor Venomous, a villain who's acted as K.O.'s enemy in prior episodes. After this, he still refers to him as "my dad" occasionally when speaking to others or in his own inner thoughts, but when directly addressing him, always continues to call him "Professor Venomous" or just "Professor", showing that, in spite of his efforts to form a relationship with him, K.O. is still very wary of and not completely comfortable around him.
• The Owl House: In the second season, King comes to accept Eda as a mother figure after it's revealed that she found him when he was a baby, and even changes his name to King Clawthorne and gets referred to as a grandson by Eda's father. He doesn't stop calling Eda by her name, though, probably because it's what he's used to.
• Played with in The Powerpuff Girls. The titular girls almost always refer to Professor Utonium by his title of "Professor" or "the Professor". It's not a sign of any disrespect, but more that they're not a "completely normal" family, as the Professor is a scientist who accidentally created the girls in his lab. If anything, their relationship is quite positive.
• The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder has Maya Leibowitz-Jenkins refer to her father Barry by his name and sometimes "Bare-Bare". Justified, as she and her twin brother, KG, have two fathers, and her Affectionate Nickname for Barry helps them know which father she's talking to.
• Rick and Morty:
  • Morty always calls his grandfather, Rick, by his name. This is likely because of two factors: 1) Rick treats Morty more like a friend than a grandchild, and 2) It's heavily implied that Rick wasn't around for most of Morty's childhood due to him abandoning the family for several years^note This is true in a way. The Rick that Morty knows is from a different dimension. Morty's real grandfather is Rick Prime, who killed Rick C-137's original wife and daughter, thus Morty doesn't connect with Rick in that way.
  • Summer, Morty's sister, usually refers to him as either "Grandpa" or "Grandpa Rick", but will occasionally call him “Rick” when angry or panicked.
  • As for Rick's actual daughter Beth, she usually addresses him as "Dad", but will sometimes call him "Rick" when talking about him in the third person.
• In Rocket Power, Otto and Reggie would occasionally call their dad by his name, Raymundo. This shows that he's a 'cool' laidback parent.
• Rosie's Rules: Crystal always calls her father 'Marco,' but this isn't out of rudeness, it's because he's her step-father.
• Bow of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has gay dads, and will sometimes refer to them by name—not as a sign of disrespect, just to clarify which one he's talking about.
• The Simpsons:
  • Bart frequently calls Homer by his given name, which shows how bratty and disrespectful he is towards him. He usually refers to Homer as "Dad" whenever he is not around (and at times also casually calls him Dad when he's talking to him), implying it's more of a means to get a cheap rise out of Homer rather than actual disdain.
  • In "Sorry Not Sorry", Bart similarly demotes his mother to "Marge" for the first time in the entire series after she attempts to serve the family a healthy breakfast of cantaloupe.
    Homer: See, Marge? Your fruit breakfast has turned him into a first name-user.
  • As shown in the flashback episode "Lisa's First Word", both Bart and Lisa referred to Homer by his first name as infants (with every attempt to get them to call him "Daddy" failing), building up to the heartwarming final scene where Maggie calls him "Daddy", though out of earshot. However, unlike Bart, Lisa refers to him solely as "Dad" now.
  • Lisa occasionally calls her father "Homer" in the original The Tracey Ullman Show shorts as well. She also does it in "Lisa the Greek".
  • Parodied with Ned in "Bull-E".
    Tod: Uncle Homer's not nice to you.
    Rod: Your name's not "Stupid". It's "Ned".
    Ned: Woah, there, Roddy. Someone's getting a little too familiar.
    Rod: Sorry, Mr. Daddy.
  • Being foils to the Simpson children much as their father is to Homer, Rod and Todd won't even do this upon request, with Todd telling their stepmother Edna that "it's disrespectful to call a grown-up by their first name." Naturally, cue Bart's voice from next door:
    Bart: Yo Homer, Mom says get your fat ass over to the Flanders'!
  • In "How Lisa Got Her Marge Back", Marge is shocked when Lisa calls her "Marjorie" after a fight. Homer doesn't see what the big deal is since Bart always calls him by his first name, but Marge points out to him that Bart does it specifically out of disrespect.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: In "Moist Vessel", to annoy her mother, Ensign Beckett Mariner addresses Captain Freeman by her given name Carol during an argument.
• Steven Universe:
  • Aspiring DJ Sour Cream has a somewhat strained relationship with his stepdad Yellowtail, who wants Sour Cream to follow in his footsteps and be a fisherman. Sour Cream even calls his dad by name a few times in "Drop Beat Dad", though after he helps salvage a rave that Sour Cream's biological father Marty bailed on, Sour Cream calls him "Yellowdad".
  • As time goes on, Steven starts to view his deceased mother less as a beloved figure he wishes he could have known, and more as a overshadowing legacy whose role he has to fulfill. In "Steven vs. Amethyst", Steven refers to her as "Rose Quartz" instead of "Mom" as he usually does.
    Steven: Of course I do. I'm...not Rose Quartz.
• Voltron: Legendary Defender: Keith calls his mother Krolia by her name due to not meeting her until he was eighteen. The first time he calls her "Mom" (at least on-screen) is when they're about to be parted again in "The Ruins".
• Debbie does this in one episode of The Wild Thornberrys when she fills in for her mom to film their nature show. She starts acting like a Prima Donna Director and calls her father by his first name, something Nigel doesn't catch till later.
• Played straight in Winx Club when Bloom, after finding her biological parents, starts calling her adoptive parents by their first names, Mike and Vanessa.
• The parents of Ben 10 actually insist on this, preferring their son address them by name and not by any parental title. This is because they're somewhat New Age, rather than out of any negativity.

Real Life

• When children choose to estrange themselves from their parents, often because of abuse, they sometimes will refer to them by first name, rather than "Mom" or "Dad."
• It's not uncommon for teenagers who play high school sports to refer to their parents by their first name, at least in some situations. When they're at a large sporting event and yell, "Mom/Dad!", 25 other parents look at them, but if they say, "Jim!", they usually get the right person's attention.
• Adult children who end up as a parent’s co-worker may begin calling their co-worker parent by name, at least at work, in order to avoid looks from calling out for Mom or Dad at work. A well-known example is NHL Hall of Famer Gordie Howe, who played alongside two of his sons in another league. Even after their playing days, they still called their father Gordie.
  • This is even more heightened in a military organization. In helps to dispel the perception of favoritism for which accusations of nepotism can seriously undermine unit cohesion and effectiveness.
• Same-sex couples also sometimes choose to have their children call them by their names, to prevent confusion over which mom/dad the kid meant.
• A transgender parent may switch to their first name with their kids after their transition.
• Frank Zappa raised his children (Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet and Diva) to address him and his wife by name rather than "Mom" or "Dad".
• Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson said often that their father Joe forbade them from calling him "Dad".
• Grimes has her son X Æ A-Xii call her by her real name Claire due to her not identifying with the word mother.
• This is pretty common amongst children who grow up in households alongside the family of one or both of their parents. The children hear the parent or parents in question being called by name, and thus, they simply start to do the same when they're old enough to start talking. Whether or not they grow out of it depends on how the child is raised from then on.

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