History Main / ParentalTitleCharacterization

->"He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn't your daddy."

* In an early episode of WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, Meg calls her grandmother Babs "Nana". It's worth noting that she's a member of Newport high society, and she's in a position to have doted on Meg before, along with and because of her successful corporate CEO husband, Carter.

* In ''A Tropical Fish Yearns For Snow'', Koyuki Honami, the daughter of a teacher at her school, refers to her father as "Honami-sensei" while at school, one of many things she does to keep up her reputation as a model student.

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, Meg calls her grandmother Babs "Nana". It's worth noting that she's a member of Newport high society, and she's in a position to have doted on Meg before, along with and because of her successful corporate CEO husband, Carter.

* ''Series/Frasier'': Frasier and Niles refer to their deceased mother, Hester Crane, as "Mother" and to their (still living) father Martin as "Dad". Ironically at the start of the series they had had a much better relationship with Hester than with Martin. This could be due to Martin being a Seattle cop who loves sports and Hester being a respected psychiatrist who loved opera.

* ''Series/{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'': Buffy finds her mother lifeless on the couch and regresses from confident young adult to frightened child in the space of three words, the last of which is achingly quiet.
-->'''Buffy:''' Mom? Mom? (beat) Mommy?

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1'': Ariel always calls King Triton "Daddy," highlighting her youthful innocence, and showing that despite their painful conflict, [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther their relationship is ultimately close and caring.]]

** As with all protagonists, Eilio/Selene from ''Sun and Moon'' refer to their mother as "Mom". In a throwaway line, they refer to their father as "father". This implies a distant relationship, made more noticeable by the fact Mom seems to have moved to Alola alone and ''[=UltraSun=] and [=UltraMoon=]'' implying that the father lives overseas, however, it's never given any further specification.

* ''Fanfic/OnTheLongRoute'': Even after turning fourteen, Muffy still calls her father "Daddy" (but her mother is just "Mom"). This shows that she's a DaddysGirl.
* Violet's abusive StageMom in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12534781/1/Through-Their-Eyes Through Their Eyes]]'' enforces this. When Violet was four, she forced Violet to begin using "mother" instead of "mommy".

The SuperTrope to CallingParentsByTheirName, which is used when characters call their parents by their given name and usually signifies either lax parents or bad familial relationships. See also UsefulNotes/JapaneseSiblingTerminology and UsefulNotes/JapanesePronouns, which are just as personal for the user. Related to YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious and YoureNotMyFather.

* LonelyRichKid [[Comicbook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] usually addresses his father as "dad" or "sir", but when talking about him to others or in his inner monologue it's more often "father" or "Jack". His mom is "mom" or "mommy" regardless.
* [[ComicBook/{{Robin}} Damian Wayne]] calls his [[ComicBook/{{Batman}} dad]] “father”. It’s representative of being raised in a formal, hands off cult of assassins.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': Ranma's love-hate relationship with his {{Jerkass}} father is cemented by always referring to him as "oyaji", rather than "otou-san" (in English, this becomes "Pop"). He has a greater deal of respect for his mother, but his casual manner of speaking is set in stone, so it earns her an "ofukuro" from her son (apparently a harder word to translate and retain the full connotations, so it stays "Mom" in English).

* LonelyRichKid [[Comicbook/RobinSeries Tim Drake]] usually addresses his father as "dad" or "sir", but when talking about him to others or in his inner monologue it's more often "father" or "Jack". His mom is mom or mommy regardless.

* ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'': Ranma's love-hate relationship with his {{Jerkass}} father is cemented by always referring to him as "oyaji", rather than "otou-san" (in English, this becomes "Pop"). He has a greater deal of respect for his mother, but his casuall manner of speaking is set in stone, so it earns her an "ofukuro" from her son (apparently a harder word to translate and retain the full connotations, so it stays "Mom" in English).

* After he [[spoiler:accidentally causes her and her mother to get burned]] and [[spoiler:leaves her to tend with her dying mother while he [[DrowningMySorrows goes out drinking]]]], Billie Jo in ''Literature/OutOfTheDust'' stops callng her dad "Daddy". She switches to "my father" or "father". [[spoiler:After they reconcile, she goes back to "Daddy"]].

* Bambi from ''Literature/{{Bambi}}'' calls his mom "mother". This could be because of the time period of the book, but it also could be to emphasize that he's an animal.

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'': The sole time Elsa refers to her parents by their titsle is when she cries for help. She uses the affectionate and childish "Mama" and "Papa". This fits her young age in the scene (eight), but also shows she has a loving relationship with her parents. Over the course of her childhood, she withdraws from her family due to fearing she might hurt them.

* In an early episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy, Meg calls Babs "Nana". It's worth noting that she's a member of Newport high society, and she's in a position to have doted on Meg before, along with and because of her successful corporate CEO husband, Carter.

{{Xenofiction}} works often has animals refer to their parents as "mother" and "father" ([[DisappearedDad assuming he's present]]) in order to emphasis their otherness.

There's some ValuesDissonance to this trope. For example, using "Mama" and "Papa" as an adult can be seen as childish in one area but perfectly normal and affectionate in another.

'''Marle''': [[Heartwarming/ChronoTrigger I'm sorry...Daddy. I'm really sorry for doubting you]].

** James calls his grandparents "Pop-Pop" and "Nana", implying both that he's a bit preppy and that he's close to them.

* When TLC's titular Little Couple, Jennifer Arnold and Bill Klein, adopted their son Will from China, they encouraged Will to call Bill "Baba," Mandarin for "Daddy." After Bill and Jennifer adopted daughter Lily from India, the children were encouraged to simply call Bill "Daddy." This was probably done to make it easier on the kids, as Bill had become a father to children from two different cultures by this point.

* Veronica from ''ComicBook/ArchieComics'' refers to her father as "Daddy" even as an adult.

{{Xenofiction}} works often has animals refer to their parents as "mother" and ([[DisappearedDad assuming they're present]]) "father" in order to emphasis their otherness.