How common is it to address one’s father by his first name, rather than by names such as “Dad” or “Pa”? This seems to be not unheard of in American sitcoms (The Simpsons, 3rd Rock from the Sun—and though in the latter Dick wasn’t Tommy’s father, they were trying to act like a family). Do any fathers encourage their children at an early age to address them by their first name?
On a related note, does anyone address his or her mother by her first name?
I always called both of my parents by their first names. My childhood was in the US, with US born parents, and in the '70s. This practice has freaked some of my more conservative friends all the heck out. It was like I was confessing to cannibalism. My childhood was not especially functional and one of the big problems was boundary issues, so I can’t say I ringingly endorse the practice. On the other hand, as a kid, what was I going to do, say, “No, I’m going to call you MOM!” I’ve met others who also did this, but not many. So I’d say at least in my generation it’s not very common, and I don’t get the sense it’s gotten more common with the passage of time. It strikes me as a feature of the '70s (Motto: When the bad ideas of the '60s were implemented.)
Also, using first names at home resulted in me always being at somewhat of a loss as to how to address adults other than my parents.
School was OK, since it was understood Mr. and Mrs. were used, because they were teachers. It also worked out OK when I was an exchange student staying with a couple that were not quite old enough to be my natural parents. They preferred the first names, too. Another advantage is I think it is harder to whine while saying a person’s name than it is to go “But, mooooooomm, I want caaaaaandy…” And I suppose it may have in some small part contributed to me developing into a rather independent-minded person.
My sister and I do, although we still use “Mum” and “Dad” as well. I don’t know how it came about - it didn’t start a particularly early age, but seemed to develop as an endearing/joking form of address when we were in our teens, which ended up sticking.
When our own children were born, they were instructed by my parents to call them by their first names, mainly because they were too freaked out about being called Granny/Grandma/Grandad/Grandpa, especially my Mum, but to a lesser extent to distinguish them from the other grandparents, who had no equivalent hang-ups.
Mrs. Homie sometimes calls her mom “Judy,” but it’s more of an affectation than anything else. It’s kind-of a joke that stuck. But she only does it once and a while.
I called my mother’s father “Sam” from about the time I was 15 until the time he died (a couple of years ago). He seemed to prefer it.
I used to call my dad by his first name, mostly to be a smart-ass, but also because calling him “Daddy” just sounded juvenile to me (even when I was actually juvenile). On the other hand, I had no trouble calling my mother “Momma,” even into my adulthood.
I called my father Roger from the time I was a kid until he died. Mostly it was because I rode to work with him a lot, and that’s what everyone else called him. I called him dad and daddy, too, but usually I used his name.
My mom was always mama.
It isn’t very common at all in my experience even though my stepfather did it with his parents and his late father was called “Roger” and lived in the same general area of BlakeTyler. There may be some some special rule with “Roger” named fathers that I never fully knew about. Other than that, it was strictly a no-no. OTOH, I always called my step-parents by their first name because nothing else was logical and it seemed fine.
We’d refer to our assorted parents by their given names even if they were standing there, because “your mom, my step-mother,” etc. just became too tedious and felt exclusionary. “Dad, I mean, MY DAD, asked you to set the table while I make the salad.” “But Mom my mom said I should sweep the floor!” It was much easier to say “Brad” and “Janet” instead. But I still call him Dad when addressing him directly. I’ll use his name to get his attention in a crowd, though.
WhyBaby started calling me by my name the other day, because she hears the kid I babysit call me that. It felt really weird, so I did correct her and tell her, “That’s Mama to you, bub!” So the other kid starting calling me Mama, too. :smack:
But if she wants to call me by my name when she gets a little older and makes a conscious choice to do so, I’m cool with that.
My siblings and I called my dad’s mother “Baba”, which is a Russian nickname for grandmother.
One evening my dad and Baba were having an arguement (in Russian so that the rest of us couldn’t follow). At some point, my dad addressed her as “Baba”. She stopped, and in very distinct English stated, “I’m am not your baba!”
Stilll cracks me up 30 years later. 
I call my parents and one set of grandparents by their first names. I do it because I was raised that way pretty much from the beginning, My mother and her siblings were that way too, and she passed it on to me. There weren’t any boundry issues, and it didn’t have any real effect on my life at all.* It was a rare practice when I was growing up, and a lot of people who heard me do it thought it was weird, disrespectful or both. My grandparents are from the south but raised their kids in NY. I was born in the 80s and my parents were born in the 50s.
*Besides the fact that I had to explain it to people who were confused, and one small problem in kindergarten when the teacher got upset that my family portrait was labeled with my parents names instead of titles, and tried to convince me to change it.
Link to a particularly funny weekly run of Zits on this very issue.
My best friend calls both his parents by their first names, and has since he was a kid. His parents, I think his dad in particular, just didn’t feel comfortable suddenly refering to themselves and each other as ‘mom’ and ‘dad’, so their first names is what the kids learned and use.
His kids also use their first names now, rather than grandpa and grandma.
I only met my fiance’s dad once before he passed away. What struck me was the fact he called him by his first name.
He did and still does call his step-dad ‘Dad’.
I don’t know anyone else who calls their Dad by there first name.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I call my female birth giver “Deborah”.
I have two half-sibs from my dad’s first marriage. They’re 7 and 11 years older than I am, and they called my mom by her first name. I picked up on that when I was about five, and my sister quickly put the kibosh on it by switching over to calling her ‘Mom’ because she was afraid that my mother would resent the fact that her biological children were corrupted out of calling her ‘Mom.’
It worked out okay.
I have two cousins who call their parents by their first names. They had a strange early childhood. They were each kept separated from their parents by the Communist government of Hungary for political reasons for a few years between the ages of one and five and raised by their great-aunt and grandmother. I’m sure that has something to do with it.
Ed
My paternal grandparents were known by their first names, and so was my great-grandmother. Not when their kids were kids, though; when my dad grew up and had kids, his mom didn’t want to be called Grandma (I think because her mother hadn’t liked it, for idiosyncratic reasons), so we all called them by their first names. No one else does it, though.
That probably wasn’t a very enlightening way to write that out, sorry.
I have a friend who frequently refers to his father and mother as his ‘sire’ and his ‘incubator’. Does that count? 
Actually, when he’s not doing that he calls his father by his first name, but not his mother.
I call my grandmother “Miss Addie”, which is a switch from MawMaw as I called her when I was a child.