In sitcoms, you can tell a parent, usually the mother, is really mad at their kid when they call for them by their full name. Often serves as a good way of telling the audience the character's full name right away. If they just use first and last name it's not as big an issue, but if the middle name is included, look out—in fact, the more nicknames you have, you can gauge the amount of trouble you're in by the number of middle names used. And while it may seem intimidating to have one's full name yelled by a parent, the time you REALLY know you're in trouble is when they don't shout it, but instead say it in a soft, (barely) restrained voice.
This frequently happens when said parent finds out about the Zany Scheme the kids have been cooking up behind his or her back, either before or after the scheme has been attempted. In this case, it's usually followed by something like, "What are you up to this time?"
May be further accentuated by using true pronunciation if the name is non-English in origin; for instance, if your family is French, hearing your full name pronounced in proper French probably means big trouble. This is most commonly used by parents who are first or second-generation immigrants.
Can also be used on any guy by his annoyed or angry significant other, be it wife, fiancée, or girlfriend. For added punch, it can also be said With! Emphasis! On! Each! Word!OF THE NAME!
Frequently employed by Real Life parents.
A milder version involves a character's full first name being used when they're more commonly known by a diminutive form or a nickname. Or, another version is the Loud Last Name, where a friend or family member shouts the LAST name of the character when they are clearly on first-name terms.
This trope may be the practical origin of I Know Your True Name; calling someone by their full name indicates intimate knowledge of that person, which can be used to exert power over them.
This only works if the person it is being used on isn't used to being called by their whole name, thus those on a Full Name Basis won't feel as much of an effect, since they're always called that anyways.
Compare First Name Ultimatum and Loud Last Name. Occasionally used to expose an Embarrassing Middle Name.
Examples
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Advertising
A cell phone company had an ad for a particular plan on the air a few years ago (a plan, presumably, that made it easier for talkative teenagers not to go over their limits) that involved various parents finding enormous phone bills and yelling out their children's full names. These started out as more mainstream American names, then hopped through a series of names from other cultural backgrounds, finishing up with a hippie mom yelling something like, "Sunshine Moonbeam Buttercup Smith!"
Anime & Manga
In One Piece, Robin calls Luffy by his full name when reminding him of his forcing her to live when she was willing to die. Usopp also does this when he challenges Luffy to a duel over the Going Merry after leaving the crew.
The Punisher has been known to do this to his intended victims.
Batwoman: Kate has shut herself up in her base after The Reveal, and her father is pleading her to let him so they can talk. As he delivers the Full Name Ultimatum, it shifts into the past mid-sentence, with Kate's mother finishing the line to a sulking Kate and her late twin sister.
"Katherine Rebecca Kane, you open this door right now, or so help me this really will turn into your worst birthdays ever!"
The Human Torch's full name is Jonathan Spencer Storm. It is generally only heard from Sue when Johnny makes a very big mistake.
Fanfiction
Lampshaded in Foundations, when Harry is angry because one of Draco's peacocks bit him.
Harry: Draco Malfoy!
Draco: What did I do?
Harry: Why do you assume you've done something?
Draco: Because you full-named me. My mother only full-names me when I've done something wrong.
In Reconciliation, Lilly gives this to Hanako when she suggests that she only kept the chess set around as a reminder of "how awful (she) was" for exploding at Hisao and isolating herself from him and Lilly
In Weekend at Hisao's, Misha gives this to Hisao when she's calling him to find out more about his argument with Shizune. It's one of the few times she addresses him by his proper name, instead of "Hicchan".
Misha: "AND IF YOU HANG UP ON ME, I SWEAR I WILL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU, HISAO NAKAI!"
Similar situation, with shorter names but titles, in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones:
Dooku: Master Yoda. Yoda: Count Dooku.
(Not recognizing him as a former Jedi?)
Wanted to prick him rather.
Jenna from Balto yells at Kodi using his full name after he doesn't go with Balto to help save Duke because Kodi doesn't care about Duke's life. Since Kodi's a dog, he doesn't have a middle or last name, so she uses his full real name in the same fashion, Kodiak. Added embarassment because its directly in front of his friends.
Spider-Man Trilogy: "Harry Osborn!" (Uttered by Aunt May in the first movie, after Harry blows up at Mary-Jane.)
In Treasure Planet, by Jim's mother, though for mild exasperation as well as admonishment.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets gives us this gem: "RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU STEAL THAT CAR! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER IS NOW FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK AND IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE, WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT HOME!"
Literary example: In Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor, the only time anyone refers to Little Man by his real name, Clayton Chester, is when he is in deep doodoo.
Mark Twain wrote: "Then she called me by my entire name, Samuel Langhorne Clemens — probably the first time I had ever heard it all strung together in one procession — and said she was ashamed of me. I was to learn later that when a teacher calls a boy by his entire name it means trouble." (Quoted in Mark Twain's Book for Bad Boys and Girls by R. Kent Rasmussen.)
And in Mark Twain's famous book Tom Sawyer, the title character knows he's in trouble whenever the schoolmaster refers to him as "Thomas".
Lampshade Hanging after being called "Thomas Sawyer": "She (Aunt Polly) calls for me like that when she wants to beat me, otherwise people just call me Tom"
In the Mercy Thompson novel Bone Crossed, Mercy is confronted by her mother.
"Mercedes Athena Thompson," snapped my mother. "Explain to me why I had to learn about what happened to you from a newspaper." I'd avoided meeting her gaze, but once she three-named me, I had no choice.
In Tithe by Holly Black, knowing and using a faerie's full name forces them to obey you. As such, full names are a closely guarded secret among faeries. A major plot point involves the full name of the male love interest, the faerie knight Roiben. Apparently, either this does not apply to the pixie female protagonist Kate Fierch, or we're never told the character's real full name (it's not clear which).
Who could forget Hermione's: "You-complete-arse-Ronald-Weasley!"
Then the aforementioned remark was followed by Hermione screeching: "Don't you tell me what to do, Harry Potter!" when Harry tries to calm her down.
Then there's McGonagall shouting Harry's name at him after his broomstick stunt in his first month at Hogwarts. Harry thought he was going to be caned or expelled. McGonagall made him a Quidditch Seeker.
Middle names in Harry Potter only seem to come up on legal documents. Legal documents only seem to come up when characters are in trouble with the Ministry, which is pretty serious.
Or during the reading of a will, which is serious, but not in the same way.
Lord Peter Wimsey's nephew, St George, once gets into trouble and ends up in hospital. While there, he receives a letter from Wimsey. He nervously asks how it starts: with the usual nickname or with his real name. The letter not only opens with his full name, but ends with Lord Peter's full name including middle names. St George winces and and says that his uncle must really be angry this time.
In The Dresden Files, a partial version of this is employed when Harry meets Ferrovax in Grave Peril. Ferrovax, using only part of Harry's True Name, brings him to his knees. This was meant to show just how powerful Ferrovax was.
A complete version is used by Uriel in Ghost Story, to discourage Harry from exercising his usual status as The Nicknamer. Or at least to get him to use a different nickname.
In The Babysitters Club Series, Stacey McGill knew she was in trouble with her parents when they called her "Anastasia"; when they called her by her full name (Anastasia Elizabeth McGill), it was time to do some serious apologizing.
Toward the end of Storm Breaking, Solaris tells off "Tremane Gyfarr Pendleson of Lynnai".
In Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Grandma calls Peter by his full name, Peter Warren Hatcher, when he asks if his turtle survived being swallowed alive by his little brother.
In Animorphs, the first time Jake decides to put his foot down and INSIST Ax follow his "Prince's" orders, despite Ax's protests, he uses Ax's full Andalite name; usually, the human characters don't refer to him as anything other than just "Ax".
In the Dinotopia spinoff Hand of Dinotopia, Sylvia does this to Will Denison a lot.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader uses this in its oft-quoted opening line: "There was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."
A partial one in The Mortal Instruments: Magnus is the only person to call Alec Lightwood by his full name, Alexander (other than his parents). After Alec asks him not to, he only addresses him as "Alexander" when he's particularly annoyed.
Prequel series The Infernal Devices features a similar partial version of this trope; Will is the only one to call Jem "James", although it is a mark of affection more than anything.
Live Action TV
Clarissa Explains It All, where Clarissa's mom called her "Clarissa Marie Darling" when provoked.
Clarissa: Uh-oh: she used the three-name call.
Star Trek: "I, Mudd". Harry Mudd's fate is to be stranded with five hundred replicas of his estranged wife who close in on him shouting, "Harcourt Fenton Mudd, you miserable sot!"
Star Trek: The Next Generation has an episode where four characters are regressed to about twelve years old. When Chief O'Brien gets very awkward around his now adolescent wife, she yanks him down by the collar to her eye level with the statement "Miles Edward O'Brien, I am STILL your wife!"
In one episode of Deep Space Nine, he subverts Rousing Speech after a Jem'hadar First has given his troops the standard "We are dead," "Victory is life," etc. speech with "I am chief Miles Edward O'Brien, I am very much alive, and I intend to stay that way."
Another Deep Space Nine example occurs in the episode "Homefront," by Ben's father Joseph when Ben becomes convinced his father's been replaced by a Changeling.
"Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, what the hell has gotten into your head? You actually thought I was one of them, didn't you?"
Lampshaded in Friends, "The One with the Cheesecake":
Phoebe: Joseph Francis Tribbiani! Joey: Woah, woah, what are you middle-naming me for?
In "The One Where Ross Can Flirt," Rachel borrows some earrings from Phoebe and tries (badly) to hide the fact that she's lost one. Phoebe says, "Rachel Karen Green, where's the other earring!?"
On Corner Gas, two characters are failing to control a coworker's small child, and finally call in one of the characters' mothers, who promptly puts the kid in line with a Full Name Ultimatum. The Aesop being? It can scare anyone.
Combined with the fact that Emma can scare anyone.
As the relationship between Arthur and Gwen grows on Merlin, he calls her "Guinevere" with increasing frequency, instead of the more casual "Gwen."
Scrubs parodies this when Dr. Cox uses it on his ex-wife: "Jordan Godzilla Sullivan!"
Parodied in How I Met Your Mother: Barney uses the fake Full Name Ultimatum "Ted Vivian Mosby!" Ted immediately says it's not his real name. Later in the episode, we find out (when his mother does it to him) his real middle name is Evelyn.
Piper: WYATT MATTHEW HALLIWELL!!! Leo: I've never heard you use his middle name before. Piper: I've never been this mad at him before.
In a very rare moment of drama in Jeeves and Wooster, the first scene delivers our protagonist's name thusly:
Sir Watkyn Bassett: I find you guilty as charged, Bertram... Wilberforce... Wooster!
Home Improvement has Jill do this to Randy ("Randall William Taylor"), followed by Tim saying to Mark, "Uh-oh. The middle name. He's in trouble now." He's not the only one, though. Brad and Mark aren't immune from this, either.
Played with in Never Mind the Buzzcocks:
Ed: I love that you called him "Snoop Doggy Dogg"... It's Snoop Dogg. The only person who'd call him Snoop Doggy Dogg is his mother and then only when he's in trouble... "Snoop Doggy Dogg! Clean these hoes out of your bedroom!"
A rare subversion occurs in Gossip Girl. Lily, Chuck's adoptive mother, is the only person who calls him Charles on a regular basis. She only calls him Chuck when voicing disapproval or adressing his more deviant qualities.
Full House: D.J. Tanner is only called "Donna Jo" in this kind of occasion. But once, this exchange happened:
D.J.: Give it back, Stephanie Judy Tanner. Steph: Don't even dream of it, Donna Jo Margaret Tanner. Uncle Jesse, to Joey:: Margaret?
Lampshaded a bit on Murphy Brown: Murphy chooses a name for her baby (Avery, after her mother), and Eldin asks what the child's middle name will be, because "How will you know what to call him when you're mad at him?"
Because of this trope, we know when Rory Joseph Hennessy from 8 Simple Rules is in trouble for misbehaving (or about to be if he doesn't restrain himself).
On Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Mark gets fully called out by Geneva, who he compares to his aunties back when he was a kid.
In the Flashpoint episode "Shockwave," Ed greets Spike after Spike almost gets himself killed stopping a dangerous bomb with, "Michaelangelo Scarlatti, what were you doing?"
Degrassi, being a show about teenagers often in drama, has done this to several characters. The most notable examples would be two characters with mysterious initials being 'named' for the audience well after introduction: James Tiberius York and Holly-Jeanette Sinclair. Characters without initials just gain a middle name.
Puppet Shows
Used in more than one episode of Dinosaurs, as quoted above.
Radio
Played for Laughs on The Stephanie Miller Show. When Stephanie or one of the other mooks says something inappropriate (well, more inappropriate than usual), Chris Lavoie will often shout out their full name, along with the middle name "Louise," regardless of their actual middle name. "Stephanie Louise Miller!" and "Jim Louise Ward!" are by far the most commonly heard ones, though "Hal Louise Sparks!" shows up much more frequently than one would think.
Video Games
At one point in Escape from Monkey Island, an exasperated Elaine refers to Guybrush as "Guybrush Ulysses Threepwood". Given his tendency to be shipwrecked, that also counts as a prophetic name.
In the seventh case of the Ben Jordan - Paranormal Investigator series, Ben's mother calls him "Benjamin Horatio Jordan" after a family argument.
The Sam And Max Freelance Police episode Ice Station Santa is the only time we hear the full name of the rat Jimmy Two-teeth ("James Tiberius Two-teeth!") — when his wife has enough of him and leaves.
Guaranteed to occur at least once (with the reality being closer to "every time you fight a significant villain") in any given Super Robot Wars title.
Strong Bad: Strong Sad Raymond Jenkins, you open this door right now or I'll— I'll— I'll..!
In Skyrim, Shouting a dragon's name is equivalent to challenging them to a duel... at least if you're not on friendly terms already.
Web Animation
In the Homestar Runner cartoon "Halloween Potion-Ma-Jig", Homestar's on-again-off-again girlfriend Marzipan calls him "Homestar Michael Runner" upon discovering Homestar has drawn ducks and bugs all over her Halloween potion recipe.
Web Comics
The warship of the protagonists of Schlock Mercenary mentions this when they take the IT calls itself into an abbreviation, and that into the name "petey", as seen here.
Charlie gets one from her mother in Khaos Komix. "CHARLIE MOONBEAM TRUEMAN!"
Tom's mother also gives him one, using his female name Maria.
In the webcomic Li'l Mell (Spinoff Babies of Narbonic), Mell's father gives her a Full Name Ultimatum — her name is Melody Wildflower Kelly. You have to know the character to know exactly how uncharacteristic her middle name is.
In Sluggy Freelance, nobody in the main cast gets called by their full name. Ever. But the "full first name" variant appears when we find out Riff's biological mother calls him Riffington.
In thisShortpacked! strip, the creator gets one from his real-life girlfriend (later wife) while and because of pudding-wrestling Ethan. He responds in a canonical way.
Willis: Sorry, Maggie. I mean, ma'am.
Precocious has a full arc about full-name ultimatums: The names of several kids are revealed, then some try to invoke the trope to learn more middle names...
Web Original
Zero Punctuation: "Shame on you, Benjamin Yahtzee Sebastian Godzilla Croshaw," spake he!
Western Animation
On Jimmy Neutron, Jimmy's mom would call him "James Isaac Neutron" after discovering that another of his experiments had gone awry.
In an episode of the animated series Doug, Roger has just published a mean-spirited article using Doug's full name (copied from his press pass), and Doug hasn't found out what is going on yet. First Doug's mother gives him the Full Name Ultimatum—and then he runs into the mayor, who does the same thing. This surprises Doug, since he didn't think the mayor even knew his middle name.
Slight variation in Static Shock; it's Virgil's sister who uses his full name, Virgil Ovid Hawkins (much to his embarassment, of course).
Ron Stoppable always calls Kim Possible K.P or Kim. But Evil!Ron called her Kim Possible. And later he overkilled it:
Evil!Ron: Welcome, Kimberly Anne Possible. Kim: The middle name is so overkill.
Kim's parents have also been known to do this on the rare occasions she upsets them:
Kim's Parents: She lied? Kim's Dad: Kimberly Anne Possible! Wherever you are, you are in big trouble!
Kim's Mom: We want Kim to be happy Ron: We do? Kim's Dad:If not, it's a one way ticket on a deep space probe. Ron: How deep? Kim's Dad:Black hole deep, Ronald!
D.W. got this twice, once after a temper tantrum in a restaurant, and again in "Go to Your Room, D.W."
Mrs. Read: Dora Winifred Read, go to your room. D.W.: But what did I do?
In Pepper Ann it happens to both Pepper Ann AND her sister Moose.
Pepper Ann's Mom: Margaret Rose Pearson! Pepper Ann Pearson!
Of course, Pepper Ann always uses her middle name anyway...
In Sonic Sat AM, an angry Sally often calls the title character "Sonic Hedgehog". This raises the question of why he insists on having "The" before his last name...
If you go by the comics, it's actually OgilvieMaurice Hedgehog.
A particularly over-the-top example is in El Tigre: Manny's full name is Manuel Pablo Gutierrez O'Brian Equihua Rivera.
It should be noted that "Guitierrez" and "Equihua" are the last names of series creators Jorge Guitierrez and Sandra Equihua.
At least two episodes of The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 had King Koopa being given an ultimatum addressing him as Bowser Koopa; this was notably the only way the character was referred to by his actual name in the cartoons.
Though, depending on what country you live in, Koopa IS his actual name.
Family Guy: Christopher Cross Griffin! That's right, they named him after the guy who sang the Arthur theme and "Sailing."
Also let's not forget "Stewart Gilligan Griffin" but he was calling himself that as a rallying call so 50-50
In The Flintstones, Wilma does this to Fred when she especially loses patience with him. However, it's a bit of a subversion since she just uses "Fred Flintstone".
This is the go to saying of Rath from Ben 10 Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. It goes "Lemme tell you something (insert full name or full title of person here, followed by threat of violence)
On Archer, Malory Archer seems to love yelling Sterling's full name at him. Just a sample of how screwed up their mother-son relationship is, his full name is Sterling Malory Archer.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Used by Princess Celestia in the episode "Lesson Zero". Though she commonly calls Twilight Sparkle by her full name, the tone she says it in, definitely constitutes as a full name ultimatum.
According to Pinkie Pie's flashback in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles", Pinkie's full name is 'Pinkamena Diane Pie'.
Very much Truth in Television. Whose parents haven't done this at some point?
In fact, a humorous (maybe...) piece of advice for new parents picking their child's name goes like this: Step outside your front door and shout the prospective full name. If it feels good to shout, then it's a good middle name.
That's how Bindi Irwin's parents settled on her name.
