Basic Trope: A child calls their parent by name as opposed to "Mum/Mom" or "Dad".
- Straight:
- Bob has a strained relationship with his mother and calls her "Alice".
- Bob sees Alice as more of a friend than a mother and calls her by her name.
- Exaggerated:
- Every character calls their parents by their first names.
- Bob calls his mother Mrs. Smith.
- Bob has called his mother by name for as long as he could speak.
- Downplayed:
- Bob only calls his mother "Alice" when he's mad at her.
- Bob calls his grandmother by her first name.
- Bob calls his Parental Substitute by her name.
- Bob calls his aunt by her first name.
- Justified:
- Bob didn't meet Alice until he was an adult and has trouble thinking of her as his mother.
- Bob has a very relaxed relationship with Alice.
- In the culture Bob lives in, it's customary for children to calls their parents by their names.
- Alice is not Bob's birth mother.
- Alice is the Big Bad and Bob refuses to acknowledge her as his mother.
- Bob grew up believing Alice was his older sister, but in reality she is really his mother.
- Bob forcibly underwent Laser-Guided Amnesia that made him forgot he was Alice's son.
- Bob is Alice's Kid from the Future and they are the same age, or perhaps he's significantly older.
- Officer Bob is talking to/questioning her as a witness to a crime, not as his mother.
- Bob has two mothers and calling Alice "Mom" would be confusing.
- Alice and Bob are on stage and their characters are not related in that way.
- Inverted:
- Bob calls his stepmother "Mom".
- Bob's mother does not recognize him as family, forcing him to call her "Alice".
- Subverted: Bob eventually grows close enough to Alice that he feels comfortable calling her "Mom".
- Double Subverted: Alice passes the Moral Event Horizon and causes Bob to lose all respect for her, and he reverts back to calling her by her name.
- Parodied:
- Whenever her son is around, Alice wears a name tag that says "CALL ME ALICE".
- Bob calls his mother "Mom" to make her mad.
- Zig Zagged: Bob calls his friendly mother by her name, but later asks her if he can call her "Mom". Alice agrees, but later confides that it makes her uncomfortable. Bob keeps doing it and eventually Alice gets used to it. She confesses to Bob that she is not his birth mother, and Bob reverts back to calling Alice by her name.
- Averted: Bob calls his mother "Mom".
- Enforced: "How can we add some drama to Bob's relationship with his mom? I know, let's have him call her name!"
- Lampshaded: "You know, most kids call their mothers 'Mom', and not by their first names."
- Invoked:
- Alice didn't feel ready for motherhood when her son was born and she raised Bob to call her "Alice".
- Bob hates his mother and calls her "Alice" to make her mad.
- Exploited:
- Alice brags to her friends that her son is friendly enough with her to call her by her first name.
- Bob calls Alice "Mom" to subtly let her know he's in danger.
- Defied: After meeting Alice, Bob tries hard to call her "Mom" in effort to grow closer to her.
- Discussed: "What are you going to call your birth mom when you meet her?"
- Conversed: "Bob should really stop calling his mom 'Alice', it's weird."
- Implied: Bob's mother signs a letter to him as "M", but it's unknown if this stands for Mom or her name.
- Deconstructed: Bob is aware of how people think he's disrespectful for calling his mother by her name and is frequently scolded by other adults for it.
- Reconstructed: Bob doesn't call Alice anything around other people, but calls her by her name in private.
- Played For Drama: Alice constantly worries about what she's doing wrong as a mother to make her son call her by her name.
- Played For Laughs: Bob refers to Alice by her full name, and every time he has to refer to her.
Back to Calling Parents by Their Name.
