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"Now, I need to say that he's not actually my uncle. For us Italians, anyone who's allowed to take off his belt and hit you with it you have to call uncle."
— Santo Cilauro, The Late Show (Australia)
Your parents' True Companions are your uncles — unless they're your aunts — without any blood connection — not even second cousins three times removed or any such relationship simplified to uncle or aunt. Conversely, if you're very young, your True Companions' uncles and aunts are likely to be yours as well, through contagion, and their parents may be uncle and aunt to you.
Compare Oba San. This trope is used only in the context of a stronger relationship; as a rule, it would not be surprising to discover that an Honorary Uncle was named as the guardian, if something happened to the parents. This trope does not cover cultures where all older adults are addressed as "Uncle" or "Aunt" — only those with special relationships.
In a Babies Ever After ending, the unmatched characters may fall into this role, so they have a place in the Happy Ending.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- The girls of Minami-ke have a relative, Takeru, whom they call oji-san ("uncle" in this context). At one point they realize they've forgotten what his actual relation to them is, so Haruka calls someone else in the family to ask; turns out Takeru is technically their cousin. But he's a good ten years older than any of them, and he takes his surrogate-uncle role seriously. At one point we see him grilling the unfortunate Fujioka about his interest in Kana.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Goten sometimes addresses Vegeta as "ojisan" (either "uncle" or "mister," depending on context) despite there being no blood between them. This is likely due to his being best friends with Trunks and the fact that Vegeta was probably the only prominent adult male figure in Goten's early life. This was not maintained in the American dub, however.
- Also, Gohan to Krillin who is one of his father's closest friends. He even calls him "uncle" at least once.
- In Fruits Basket, Kisa, who is 12 years old when she first appears, calls Hatori, Ayame, and Shigure Sohma "Grandpa" (in the English sub of the anime, although it should be "Uncle") or "Oji-chan" (in the English sub of the manga), despite their being only 15 years older than she is.
- Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure calls his deceased Grandfather's best friend "Uncle" Speedwagon, considering him just as much a part of his family as his Grandmother.
- Hayate Yagami refers to Gil Graham, a friend of her father(his cover story while using her in his plan to fill and then seal the Book Of Darkness) who supports her, as "Graham-oji-san".
- In X1999, Kamui calls his best friend's father "uncle." This led to some confusion among fans as to whether Kamui and Fuuma were cousins (they're not).
- Extremely Squicky example in Kare Kano: Asaba becomes so much this trope from even before the kids are born that Yukino teases Soichiro that he's almost like a second husband and father. The Squick comes in when it's revealed that their daughter Sakura is his "soul mate". He tries to .
- In Fullmetal Alchemist, Ed and Al refer to the Doctors Rockbell, Urey and Sara, as "Aunt and Uncle Rockbell." They're not related to the Elrics in any way.
- In Saiyuki, in one of Hakkai's versions of the future he mentions Gojyo will be his children's uncle.
- Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Yuni addresses Reborn (who happens to know both her mother and grandmother) as "Reborn-ojii-sama". Tsuna is understandably shocked.
- In Fate Zero, Rin and Sakura Tohsaka refer to Kariya Matou as 'Uncle Kariya'. Kariya himself is the Unlucky Childhood Friend of their mother Aoi, and loves Rin and Akura like (and secretly wishes) they were his own daughters.
Comic Books
- In The Fantastic Four, Franklin and Valeria Richards, Reed and Sue's children, call Ben "Uncle Ben"; Ben is even Franklin's godfather (and Frank's middle name, Benjamin, was given in honor of Ben, Reed's best friend since college). Spider Man has also become one of these over the years, thanks to being more and more ingrained in the family. The way he's taken over Johnny's spot recently has been compared to an uncle moving in to look after everyone following a death in the family.
- The FF has always been just as much a family as a team, so this makes sense.
- In Italian Scrooge McDuck comics, Scrooge's New Old Flame Glittering Goldie has a granddaughter who jokingly calls him "Granddad." A-hem...
- Splinter, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is Shadow Jones' Honorary Uncle, a title he shares with retired superhero "Stainless" Steve Steel.
- Shadow also collectively refers to the turtles as her uncles.
- Arsenal's daughter Lian of Teen Titans refers to all the other Titans as either "Aunt ____" or "Uncle ____".
- In the newspaper comic Cathy, Cathy's friend Andrea encouraged her daughter Zenith to call Cathy "Aunt Cathy" — and when Cathy's mother came to visit, she was declared "Aunt Grandma."
- TRON: Ghost in the Machine (follow up to Tron 2.0, Alternate Continuity to TRON: Legacy), Jet Bradley refers to "Uncle Kevin's" trip into cyberspace. An in-game email says that Kevin is Jet's godfather.
- Shazam has "Uncle Marvel," or Uncle Dudley. He was originally a Loveable Rogue who tried to exploit the Marvel family but developed a soft spot for them, becoming their Team Dad. Eventually he was Ret Conned into being Billy's actual uncle, however. In the post-Crisis Power of Shazam series, he was the janitor at Billy's school, but Billy only ever called him "Mr Dudley".
Fairy Tales
- In The Three Aunts, the women agree to help the heroine in return for this.
"Well never mind, child," said the old woman, "If you'll call me Aunt on the happiest day of your life, I'll spin this flax for you, and so you may just go away and lie down to sleep."
She complained of her trouble, and then they offered her their help and said, "If thou wilt invite us to the wedding, not be ashamed of us, and wilt call us thine aunts, and likewise wilt place us at thy table, we will spin up the flax for thee, and that in a very short time."
Fan Fiction
- In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, Kyon and his sister consider Keiichi, Rika, Rena, Mion, Shion, Satoko and Satoshi as their aunts/uncles, despite only being related to the former two.
- Pops up a lot in CSI NY fics involving the Danny/Lindsay pairing and their daughter Lucy. There's a lot of Lucy and "Uncle Don" and "Uncle Mac" and "Aunt Stella" and sometimes others like Sheldon or Sid get into it as well. Prime example: CTI-Jenn's "Wrong Place, Wrong Time"
 and "Begin Again" duo. (can be accessed through author page at the same link.)
- In Windfall, Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity are all referred to as the aunts of Fluttershy and Big Macintosh's foal.
Film
- In The Sound of Music, the seven Von Trapp children call Max "Uncle Max" even though he's just a family friend.
- The movie On Our Own is about a group of orphaned children trying to make it to their uncle's house. It's revealed later in the movie that he isn't actually their uncle, but a family friend—which complicates their quest in finding someone to take care of them.
- The film Spy Kids features Uncle Felix, who is really a bodyguard assigned to the family. Subverted in the sense that before he reveals the secret life of their parents as spies, the kids really thought he was their blood uncle.
- "Old Wen" from Eat Drink Man Woman is an Honorary Uncle to Chu's three daughters, to the point of being visibly shocked upon hearing of his death.
- Terminator - Uncle Bob.
- In Finding Neverland, the Llewelyn-Davies boys call James Barrie "Uncle James" and "Uncle Jim" after he befriends them and their mother. Given James' personality, though, he's more of an honorary big brother.
- Donna's best friends are Auntie Tanya and Auntie Rosie to her daughter Sophie in Mamma Mia!.
- In the film version of The Who's Tommy, the mother's second husband asks Tommy to call him Uncle Frank. Whether or not he considers him as such (Tommy is mute through most of his life) is another matter.
- Uncle Tadpole in Bran Nue Dae, although subverted at the end, when it turns out he is Willy's father, much to everybody's surprise except Willy's mum.
- Aunt Maggie from Child's Play wasn't really Andy's aunt. She was a close friend and co-worker to his mom.
- In Shrek The Third, Shrek's wife Fiona is pregnant. Shrek's companion Donkey exclaims in celebration that he's going to be an uncle.
- In Kontroll, Bulcsu the ticket inspector calls Bela the train driver "Uncle Bela." They are obviously not relations, because Bulcsu doesn't know that the young woman in the bear suit is Bela's daughter.
Literature
- In the Star Wars novels, both the Skywalker and Solo kids refer to Lando Calrissian as "Uncle Lando."
- In Lois Mc Master Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga books, Miles Vorkosigan called Simon Illyan "Uncle Simon" until he entered the military. Cordelia is also viewed as an honorary aunt to the Koudelka sisters.
- In Dan Abnett's Warhammer 40000 Gaunt's Ghosts novel First & Only, Ibrim Gaunt's father's commander featured as his "Uncle Dercius".
- The Importance of Being Earnest : Cecily addresses her guardian Jack as her uncle 'from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate'.
- In Jo Walton's Half a Crown, Elvira refers to her adoptive father as "Uncle Carmichael".
- A Mind Screw version in Dragaera. Devera calls Vlad "Uncle Vlad". The thing is, Devera is the not-yet-born daughter of Vlad's Dragaeran friend Aliera, and the father is Aliera's long-dead ancestor Kieron. As Vlad is the reincarnation of Kieron's brother (and Aliera is the reincarnation of their sister), he might be Devera's literal uncle as well. Devera also refers to Aliera's cousin as "Uncle 'Rollan," which probably qualifies as honorary. Well, unless it's because Morrolan, by pledging his soul to Verra, almost qualifies as Aliera's stepfather as well—Verra calls him "beloved," after all. Like we said—Mind Screw.
- The Mouse and His Child lets the mouse adopt their helpful friends the Frog, Kingfisher and Bittern, and even the villainous Manny Rat, now repentant, and toothless as honorary uncles.
- In L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Marilla has Anne call her "Marilla" and not "Aunt Marilla". However, later, when Anne has children, she's "Aunt Marilla" to them. In fact, many extended families in Montgomery's stories are like this - just ask the Murrys of New Moon or the Leslies of Cloud of Spruce. No matter what your relationship to a member of the older generation, they are "Aunt" or "Uncle." Special cases, however, merit "Cousin" no matter what the age of the person - such as Cousin Jimmy, who "isn't all there."
- At the end of John Barnes's One For The Morning Glory, Sir John is explicitly described as acting as a honorary uncle to Amatus and Calliope's children.
- In A Wrinkle In Time, Meg Murray gives one of the faceless tentacled aliens from planet Ixchel the nickname "Aunt Beast".
- In Dorothy L. Sayers' Gaudy Night, Saint George solicits permission to call Harriet Vane "Aunt Harriet" because she knows too many of his secrets. He doesn't get it. (And then she becomes his real aunt.)
- In Tamora Pierce's Tortall Universe, Aly calls all the main characters of the first two Tortall quartets "Aunt" and "Uncle" (except, obviously, for her the ones who are her parents, and Daine's animals.)
- In the Belgariad, Garion always called Polgara "Aunt Pol" growing up. Technically, she's his infinite-great-aunt, but it still applies. He still does in informal situations in the Mallorean; Ce'Nedra (his wife) uses the name for her at one point near the end, a sign of how their relationship has changed. In turn, Polgara refers to the sorcerer Beldin (who helped raise her) as "Uncle Beldin" - when she isn't flinging (well-returned) insults at him.
- In one of the prequels, Polgara comments that most little boys she meets call her "Aunt Pol". Granted, a good number of them are her great-nephews (Garion's ancestors).
- Edgar Rice Burroughs uses this one in his Literary Agent Hypothesis for John Carter of Mars, recounting his first meeting:
I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the tall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.
- In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files novel Dead Beat, when Harry insists on speaking to Luccio alone, Ramirez tells the other young Wardens, "We have to go sit with Uncle Morgan while the other adults have a serious talk."
- A straighter example would be Harry to Michael's kids.
- Which is kind of creepy considering Molly's one-sided crush on him...
- In CS Lewis's The Last Battle: Eustace reveals that all the younger Friends of Narnia call the elderly Polly Plummer "Aunt Polly." Professor Digory Kirke is always "The Professor," though.
- In Isaac Asimov's Lucky Starr series, David Starr was raised after his parents' death by his father's two best friends, "Uncle Gus" and "Uncle Hector." The three men were so close that as a child, David sometimes got confused and called his father Uncle Lawrence, too.
- Aunt Bertha in The Great Brain books is an unrelated widow who lives with the Fitzgeralds.
- Although Esmerelda Weatherwax in the Discworld series is often called "Granny Weatherwax", there's something more significant about Tiffany Aching being told she can refer to her by that title in A Hat Full of Sky (especially since one of the themes of The Wee Free Men was the loss of her actual Granny Aching). Not that having Esme as an Honorary Grandmother is easy...
- In the Miss Marple story "The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side", Inspector Craddock starts calling Miss Marple "Aunt Jane" — which he doesn't in any of the other books he's in.
- Sidney Carton becomes one of these to Charles and Lucie's children in A Tale of Two Cities
- Bridget Jones's Uncle Geoffrey is actually a close friend of her parents'.
- In the Teenage Worrier series, Letty mentions that some divorced parents ask their children to call the parent's new partner "Aunt" or "Uncle."
- In Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, narrator/protagonist Lily overhears Snow Flower addressing their chaperone the matchmaker informally as "Auntie", assumes this trope is the case, and imitates the form of address to beg for sweets. In a later chapter, Snow Flower admits that the matchmaker really is her aunt.
- In Angie Sage's Septimus Heap books, Aunt Zelda is not only an aunt to all the Heap boys, and Jenna, who was raised as her niece, but to Wolf Boy as well.
- In PG Wodehouse's Thank You, Jeeves, Bertie admits that he's always regarded Jeeves less as a valet and more as "a sort of uncle".
- In Michael Flynn's Up Jim River, Zorba is the harper's honorary uncle. The Fudir finds this small comfort in view of the Living Legend status of the man.
- In L. M. Montgomery's Jane Of Lantern Hill, Little Aunt Em is this to everyone — Jane's father can't even remember which of her husbands was second and so what her legal name is. Also Uncle Tombstone, whose real name is Tunstone and is described as not having a niece or nephew in the world.
- In Wen Spencer's Elfhome, Chloe tries to talk Tinker into talking, urging her to confide in "Auntie Chloe." Given she's a reporter, this just puts Tinker's back up.
- In A Brothers Price, Ren was married to Kij's brother. After he died, Kij went to the cribs in grief and got with child. Ren considers this girl her niece, and little Eldie calls Ren her aunt.
- By the time Scarlett marries Rhett in Gone with the Wind, her son Wade has been calling him "Uncle Rhett" for years.
- In The Phantom Tollbooth, after Faintly Macabre has told Milo and Tock her story and about Rhyme and Reason, she tells them they may call her Aunt Faintly.
- In Seanan Mc Guire's October Daye novels,
- Toby is "Auntie Birdie" to a whole family of children
- In Late Eclipses, she remembers how Sylvester was "Uncle Sylvester" and her Parental Substitute, and Raysel calls Oleander "Auntie", spitefully, while thanking her for her help and killing her.
- In the Vorkosigan Saga, Miles referred to Simon Ilyan, head of ImpSec as "Uncle Simon" until around the time that Ilyan became his boss. This relationship became more literal after Simon retired and entered a relationship with his Aunt Alys, who is also an example, as she's technically Miles' first cousin once removed by marriage, not an aunt at all (Her late husband's father was married to the sister of Miles' paternal grandmother).
- In the later Left Behind books, Buck and Chloe have a son. Tsion Ben-Judah, one of the people who lives with them, is referred to as "Unca Zone".
Live Action TV
- In Heroes Fanon, it is generally accepted that Claire knew Claude, her father's old partner, as "Uncle Claude". This was also mentioned on the commentary for the episode "Company Man".
- Arrested Development had Uncle Jack "and remember, he's not really their uncle!"
- In How I Met Your Mother, Future Ted regularly refers to the other characters as Aunt Robin, Uncle Barney, Uncle Marshall, and Aunt Lily when talking to his kids. This regularly prompts fans to declare that they've worked out who the mother is - it must be Robin's/Barney's/Marshall's/Lily's sister!
- And some people think it will be one of their siblings specifically to mess with the audience's assumption of Honorary Uncle.
- In fact, since the reveal of Barney's father, fans have been introduced to a little brother and a little sister. Ted also states that his wife was in an economics class on his first day teaching at a college and that he met her at Barney's wedding. This prompts fans to speculate Barney being an actual Uncle Barney. However, Barney tries to make his sister marry Ted, she is promptly revealed to specifically NOT be the mother.
- It also acts as a bit of an Interface Spoiler (something the series openly abuses). If a new character joins their group, they won't be referred to with the Honorary Uncle status, and that means they won't last.
- There's an episode of The Golden Girls in which Dorothy's goddaughter is getting married. She calls her "Aunt Dorothy." Fine. Then Blanche appears and the young woman calls her "Aunt Blanche," despite there being absolutely no indication that Blanche even knows her.
- The son of a murder victim on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit called his mom's best friend Aunt Gina. She shortly turned up murdered, too.
- Referenced in Shane's graduation speech in Weeds where one of the groups he named in the introduction was "...people we call aunts and uncles but really aren't..."
- Supernatural: Bobby Singer is definitely Sam and Dean's honorary uncle, considering that he's been a better father figure to them (especially Dean) than their own father ever was. He's also the one who told Dean (in the Season 3 finale): "Family don't end with blood, boy."
- Joey from Full House is the childhood best friend of Danny Tanner. Danny's daughters only call him "Uncle Joey" a few times in early episodes. Despite not being related to the family he acts as an uncle to the kids of the house. Joey usually handles the day-to-day raising of the kids by doing chores like making meals, driving the kids to school appointments, and after school activities, taking care of Michelle as a baby, and helping the kids with their homework. He also becomes their Uncle Jesse's best friend and Jesse insists his children call Joey, "Uncle Joey" as a sign of respect.
- Early seasons of Saturday Night Live had Buck Henry as Uncle Roy, who gets ... a little too friendly while babysitting for his "nieces" (he is a friend of their mother's).
- Power Rangers Samurai: Bulk (yes, Bulk) to Skull's son Spike.
- In Frasier, Roz refers to the Cranes as "Uncle Frasier," "Uncle Niles," and "Aunt Daphne" when talking to her daughter Alice.
- In Red Dwarf, Rimmer seems to think he'll be this after Lister gets pregnant in an alternate universe.
- In The Sopranos, the mob guys are all honorary uncles towards their associates' respective children.
- On Awkward., Jenna's mother's best friend, Ally, is her honorary aunt. Subverted in that Jenna and Ally can't stand each other and Jenna dislikes having to refer to her as Aunt Ally.
- During JAG's first season, Lt. Meg Austin could get hard-to-acquire information from her Uncle Ollie. Played by Oliver North, formerly a Lt. Colonel in the US Marine Corps who was (in)famous for his involvement in the Real Life Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980's.
- In Friends there's one episode where Rachel is delighted to be "fun Aunt Rachel" to Ben, and Rachel herself often calls Joey "Uncle Joey" to Emma. Conversational Troping when a horrified Monica specualates that her and Chandler's kids will think of Janice as an aunt.
- In Criminal Minds, Hotchner's son Jack calls David Rossi "Uncle Dave".
Music
- In The Who's Tommy, we have Uncle Ernie, who is likely Tommy's uncle (or uncle-in-law in The Movie version, according to Pete Townshend). He becomes honorary later on, however, when he apparently becomes a counselor at Tommy's Holiday Camp; he refers to himself as Uncle Ernie to a group of people who are most likely children.
Tabletop Games
Webcomics
- This might be the case for the real life Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade, as in the fifth print volume for the strip on the date of the birth of Gabe's son, Tycho says that he strives to be the weirdest uncle possible for him.
- Confirmed in the reality series. Whenever the two talk about each other to their children, they say "Uncle Mike" and "Uncle Jerry."
- Friendly Hostility has Uncle Rafi.
- Gunnerkrigg Court: James Eglamore was a friend of Donald and Anja Donlan since they were in school together. So their daughter, Kat Donlan, knew James as "Uncle Jimmy" long before she knew him as "Mr. Eglamore, the games teacher".
- In The Order of the Stick's Start of Darkness, Roy is surprised to hear about his father's real history with an uncle who was actually a former fellow adventurer.
- The narrator of You Damn Kid once says that "Everyone has an uncle who's not really your uncle but you call him that anyway."
- Bob is this to Molly's clone Galatea in The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!, making her part of his extended Tangled Family Tree.
- In No Rest for the Wicked, Red asks the children (whom they have just met) "What's it to be, lambs? Stay with Uncle Fuzzielumps, or Auntie Red?" Perrault is a cat, but Red has an axe and a smile: "I love cats." "Me, too"
- The Dreamland Chronicles: one fairy is Uncle Pistacho to the children.
- Bob and George Mega Man wants this
- Dominic Deegan: Uncle Pinkie
- Footloose She says I have to call her 'Aunty'
- In Thistil Mistil Kistil, Loki took this on toward Coal -- while telling Hedda about his family, without telling Hedda that it was not a blood relation. Leading to some discussion of another honorary uncle, explicitly contrasted with his actual Evil Uncles.
- In Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, she has a friend -- actually more like a family member. An uncle, maybe.
- Davan and PeeJee are this to Aubrey and Jason's adopted daughter Pamela in Something Positive.
- In Faux Pas, a frequent bunny to fox usage — plus sometimes fox to chicken.
Web Original
- PPC agents who rescue child bit-characters and place them in the Nursery (specifically set up to take care of such children) often become honorary Aunts and Uncles. One good example is Oscar Henson, one half of the Department of M Preg, whose job is to rescue the unnaturally existing M Preg-created babies, and was in fact warned by his mentor Trojanhorse that he was likely to end up "Uncle Oscar" to an increasing proportion of the Nursery's inhabitants over time. In general, agents become parents (or aunts/uncles for that matter) by adoption more frequently than by blood.
Western Animation
- Danny Phantom. Vlad Masters somewhat ironically insists on being called Uncle Vlad by his best friends' (one of which he hates and is constantly trying to kill, the other he has a stalkery crush on) children (again, one of which he hates and is constantly trying to kill when he isn't trying to make him his apprentice).
- DuckTales: Scrooge McDuck tells Webby - the granddaughter of his grand-nephews' nanny - to call him Uncle Scrooge.
- Sonic The Hedgehog: Tagalong Kid Tails calls Sally "Aunt Sally."
- Also, everyone else refers to Sonic's uncle as "Uncle Chuck."
- Uncle from Jackie Chan Adventures may be this. Apparently, neither Jackie nor Jade nor anyone else in the family is entirely sure how he's related to them - or if he is at all!
- In the second season of The Critic, Penny, the young daughter of Jay's girlfriend Alice, calls him "Uncle Jay."
- When Bart from Young Justice first meets the Garricks he refers to them as his "honorary great-grandparents," since they're the sort-of mentors of his grandfather. Word Of God also says they hold the "uncle/aunt" role for Wally.
Video Games
- In the Harvest Moon games that feature Popuri as a character, the local kids tend to call her "Auntie Popuri". Of course, Popuri insists she's too young to be called anyone's "Auntie". In More Friends of Mineral Town, if you marry Rick, she will even insist that your daughter—who would be her biological niece—not call her Auntie because she doesn't want to feel old.
- In Beyond Good And Evil, Jade refers to Pey'j as "Uncle," even though they're obviously not related. (Being different species and all.) He's actually more like her godfather.
- Something like this happens in Touhou with Cute Ghost Girl Yuyuko Saigyouji and her servant / gardener / Battle Butler, Youmu Konpaku. Yuyuko's former servant was Youki Konpaku, who left on a journey for "enlightenment" after being the gardener for about 300 years, leaving only his descendant and successor, an extremely young an inexperienced Youmu, behind. Canonically, Yuyuko is too much of a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass that enjoys teasing and prodding along Youmu for it to be too apparent, but as Youmu is afraid of ghosts, in spite of her boss being a ghost, and in spite of living in the Netherworld, where everyone she meets is a ghost, and even being a Half-Human Hybrid that is part spirit, herself, to survive the Netherworld, it is implied that Yuyuko keeps a watchful eye out for Youmu as her only remaining "family".
- In Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun Dark Dawn, the elderly matriarch of Champa is called Obaba. "Obaba" is Japanese for "grandmother", making her an Honorary Grandma to everyone in Champa, and to our heroes (and Kraden). Effectively, Everybody Calls Her Grandma.
- Blink and you miss it in the first game: when Garet and Isaac are leaving town, Garet's little brother refers to Isaac's mother as "Aunty Dora".
- In Mass Effect 2, Tali considers Shala'Raan, a quarian admiral who was a friend of both her parents this, calling her "Auntie Raan", or "Aunt Shala." As a result of her relationship to the Zorah family, Raan is forced to recuse herself during Tali's trial, merely serving as a moderator to the admirals, but tells Tali that she has her support, and hopes Tali will be exonerated.
- In Dragon Age II, Hawke admits in Act III that he's come to see Bodahn Feddic as a member of his family and that, not matter what, Bodahn and his son Sandal always will have a place in their home.
- Kula considers Maxima as this in The King of Fighters. While they're members of a True Companions group alongside K', his sister Whip and Kula's caretakers Foxy and Diana, he isn't exactly pleased to be referred to as "uncle."
Real Life
- Even if culture does not demand it, family friends of your parent's generation regularly come to be called "Uncle" or "Auntie", if only because it's easier to teach a child two words than a plethora of names.
- In Russian culture, children refer to any adult as that.
- Chilean writer Isabel Allende has told in all of her biographies that she calls her stepfather Uncle, but that is part the long tradition of calling Uncle/Aunt to every adult the age of one's parents regardless of filial relationship, part the fact that he and her mother weren't legally married (long story). Similarly, Salvador Allende was actually her (natural) father's cousin and thus actually "Uncle Salvador."
- Godmothers and godfathers are often referred to as Aunt or Uncle by their godchild and other children in the family.
- In Filipino family culture, close family friends are always given this honor, thus it is not surprising for children to call older people (about the same age as their parents) "Tito" and "Tita" (Uncle and Aunt respectively) or "Ate" and "Kuya" (older brother and sister respectively if the person being referred to looks like a teenager or a young adult) even if they are not related by blood. Calling total strangers "ate" or "kuya" is considered a sign of respect, equivalent to somebody referring to a stranger as "Sir" or "Madam."
- In many indigenous cultures, the term used for a father's friend is also "father". But in this case, it's also used for the father's brother.
- This used to be common in the Netherlands, but lately the sense of formal speech in general is considered old-fashioned and elitist, and thus family-related titles like uncle, aunt, mom, dad, grandpa, etc. are considered old fashioned as well.
- This was apparently the case with Walt Disney himself to the original stars of The Mickey Mouse Club.
- In one of his Evening With DVDs, Kevin Smith says that his hetero-life mate Jason Mewes is referred to by Kevin's daughter Harley as "Uncle Jay"..
- Dhani Harrison, George Harrison's son, calls Ringo Starr "Uncle Ringo".
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