Basic Trope: The parents are never referred to by their real names.
- Straight: The parents are called "Mum"/"Mom" and "Dad".
- Exaggerated:
- The kids are only called "Brother", "Sister", "Son", "Daughter", and similarly with uncles, aunts, and cousins.
- Parents are always called things such as "Mom" and "Dad" even in cases where it'd be expected for them to say their real names, such as when talking to family members or even on legal documents.
- Downplayed:
- Because the child's last name is known, the last name of the parents is known. Last-Name Basis is used, even when First-Name Basis would have been more natural.
- Only one of the parents is named.
- The parents do have names, but they're much more frequently called by titles such as "Mom" and "Dad". The fact that they have real names may be confirmed by Word of God, or it's All There in the Manual.
- Justified:
- The protagonist is so young that they have yet to learn that their parents have names other than "Mommy" and "Daddy". See Most Writers Are Adults.
- Similarly, the main character is old enough to know that their parents have real names, but tends to call them "Mom" and "Dad" (or similar terms) since most people don't usually call their parents by their real names anyway. The parents are minor enough characters to not have their real names mentioned in any context, either.
- Inverted:
- Unlike the conventional practice in American culture and elsewhere, the parents want their kids to call them by their names just like they would for anyone else.
- The parents' names are known to the audience, but their son and daughter are only addressed with pet names ("sweetie", etc.) that don't even qualify as nicknames, and are only referred to as "Alice and Bob's son/daughter/child".
- Subverted: The show uses several obvious devices to avoid saying the parents' names, then goes ahead and reveals them.
- Double Subversion: But the supposedly revealed names are immediately revealed to be wrong ("Why are you always forgetting my name? It's not Alice!") and the audience still doesn't know their real names.
- Parodied:
- The parents' names are actually "Mom" and "Dad."
- Whenever the parents try to reveal their real names, it's censored like they're saying a swear word. A Sound-Effect Bleep plays whenever they say their names, and any written instances of their names are pixellated/blurred out.
- Zig-Zagged:
- The parents are left nameless, unintentionally, just because they aren't that important. At a later stage of the show's history, they are more important, but still don't have names, and the writers resist giving them names because it would be awkward. Finally, the writers go ahead and decide on names for the parents and reveal them to the audience.
- After the parents are named, they furtively look at the calendar. When the big day comes, they hold a party. In is 7 years since they committed that crime. Statute of Limitations. They can revert to their "original" names.
- Whether the parents are called by their real names or by terms like "Mom" and "Dad" depends on the context.
- Some parents' names are revealed, and some aren't.
- Averted: The audience knows the parents' names.
- Enforced:
- "The parents really aren't that important to the show. It really works better if we don't give them names."
- The show is aimed at very young children who are unlikely to realize that parents also have real names.
- Lampshaded: "Hey, come to think of it, I don't actually know my dad's real name."
- Invoked:
- The character is the kind of preschool-aged kid mentioned above as an example of a Justified Trope. They are kidnapped by someone intending to hold them for ransom, but the burglar finds that they can't simply ask the kid who their parents are, because they don't know.
- The parents explicitly avoid telling anyone their real names for some reason, instead opting to be called "(Character's) Mom/Dad" or something similar.
- Exploited: A criminal kidnaps a child from school by posing as "Bobby's Dad" to the teacher, who doesn't know the actual name either.
- Defied: Whether because they're very young or because they're The Ditz, the character turns out not to know their parents' names. Someone who does know immediately corrects this gap in their knowledge.
- Discussed: "Wait, what are the names of Bob's parents? I can never remember them."
- Conversed: "I have a life of my own, you know. I'm not like those mothers on our kids' cartoons, who don't even have names of their own beyond "Mommy."
- Implied: The parents are usually called things like Mom/Dad, but some Freeze Frame Bonuses imply that they have real names.
- Deconstructed: A culture with strong Planet of Steves tendencies in which all mothers and fathers have their names changed to "Mother" or "Father". What were their names before they were "Mother" and "Father", you ask? "Husband" and "Wife", of course.
- Reconstructed: But in such a culture, the kids themselves still use more familiar names. For instance, the father's name is "Father", but his kids don't call him "Father", they call him "Daddy".
Say hi to Mom and Dad at Unnamed Parent.
