# What do you call your parents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161 "2009-02-16T20:51:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/41 "2009-02-17T03:16:38Z")
Mom: Mom, Mommy, little girl\*, or Betsy\*\* - she’s shorter than me \*\* not the real nickname. But she hates it. Dad: Dad, Daddy, Mr. Tyger\* - obviously, I use our real last name. It’s what my mom calls him about half the time too. I’ve never pretended to be grown-up. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/42 "2009-02-17T03:22:00Z")
Add me to the short list. I call them by their first names-Denny and Donna- and have as long as I can remember. It’s never been about a lack of respect, it’s just…those are their names. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/43 "2009-02-17T03:28:48Z")
Like Tamerlane, i call them by their first names. Have since i could speak. Some of my friends also find it odd. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/44 "2009-02-17T03:41:35Z")
I’m American, but in my family we say “Mum” and “Mumma.” Maybe it’s an old-style New Englander thing? My father is “Dad.” (Oddly, I haven’t called him anything since I was very little, due to some inexplicable inability on my part. One of my kids has inherited that, and around seven, stopped calling us anything. He says he can’t bring himself to.) After reading a few too many English Victorian novels as a kid, I tried to call my parents Mater and Pater for a while. It didn’t go over well. With my kids, I’ve always referred to myself as “Mummy” or “Mum,” but none of them have used it. They use whatever their dads have used to refer to me. So one called me “Mama” and still does, even though he’s grown. He called his father “Daddy” when he was little, then started using his first name. My littlest kids say “Mammy” (because their dad has a foreign accent and says that) and “Daddy.” Except for the one who dares not speak our names anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/45 "2009-02-17T03:53:19Z")
Mama and Papa. A few of my siblings sometimes use “Daddy” instead of, or in addition to, “Papa.” I’ve no idea why. As words, “Mama” and “Papa” seem more Italian or Spanish, yet my family is very much American (at least 2 generations removed from Irish ancestors on one side, maybe 3 or 4 from German ancestors on the other… if I go back about six generations, one ancestral lineage is Spanish–but clearly too far removed from me to make any impact). ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/46 "2009-02-17T04:45:48Z")
I’ve always called them “Mommy” and “Daddy”. I’m 42. ---
**Author:** ![CAT\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@CAT\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CAT_1)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/47 "2009-02-17T04:58:57Z")
I am 44. We called them Ma and Pa. When we were younger a we called my mother “Mum”. But we always called my dad Pa. We were some of the only kids I knew around this area(central Wi) that used the old fashioned Ma and Pa. My mother who is 75 right now called her parents “Mama and Papa”. Her parents were German immigrants. So, I think we just used shortened versions of that. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/48 "2009-02-17T05:05:43Z")
When I was a child they were Mama and Daddy. As my sister and I got older, like into the teen years, we started “nicknaming” them more. He became Doodah, Daddoo, and finally Doo. She became Moomah, Moo, and then “da Moo.” Now they are pretty much Moo and Doo within the family. If we are talking about them in a serious manner, they become Mama and Daddy again. Of course, to outsiders, they are always “my mom” and “my dad.” Yes, we are a strange family. ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/49 "2009-02-17T05:06:35Z")
When I was a stupid teenager, I started calling my parents by their first names just to piss them off. Yes, this was immature. And pretty ungrateful, considering that my parents have been more or less great for my whole life. They tolerated this. I suspect they knew I was just being a stupid kid. The crazy thing? The whole “call parents by first name” thing stuck. I still usually call my mom by her first name. I’ve drifted back somewhat towards calling my father “dad”. I don’t think it bothers them any more. I certainly don’t mean the disrespect I did when I was 14. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/50 "2009-02-17T05:46:21Z")
When talking to my mother, it’s “mom” when talking to friends about my mother, it’s almost always mother “mother”. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/51 "2009-02-17T05:57:27Z")
30 years old and have always called them Mama and Daddy. Mom and Dad seems…cold…to me for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/52 "2009-02-17T09:18:26Z")
I’m 27, female. I call my parents Mom and Dad, and I call my stepdad (whom I met when I was about 13) by his first name. I also call my in-laws Mom and Dad, as my husband does. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/53 "2009-02-17T11:25:14Z")
With all due respect, **Hippos** … I call _my_ parents “ignorant, arrogant, litigious control freaks.” ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/54 "2009-02-17T14:51:55Z")
I still call my mother “Mommy” :o My dad is “Abbi”. See, when my oldest sister was a baby, he tried to get her to call him “Abba” (Hebrew for “father”), but she couldn’t quite pronounce it. So he’s been Abbi ever since. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/55 "2009-02-17T14:53:57Z")
I call my mom “Mom.” I, uh, don’t call my dad anything. I know this is bizarre. But my parents divorced when I was 6 months old. My mom remarried when I was 4, and I learned to call the new guy “Daddy,” but then Mom divorced again when I was 6. But it still felt weird to call my actual dad “Daddy,” because that was the other guy. And calling him by his actual first name is just weird and wrong. So, um, I don’t call him anything. I know it’s kind of strange to think about getting through 32 years without ever having to call a close family member by name, but I’ve managed it. My neuroses: let me show you them. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/56 "2009-02-17T14:57:49Z")
I call my mother “Mom” or “Ma”. Prior to his death in '99, I used to call my dad “Bob” (parents divorced when I was a baby; didn’t meet the old man until I was almost 13). ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/57 "2009-02-17T14:58:20Z")
They’ve mostly been Mom and Dad for as long as I can remember, although I do use my dad’s first name, too. Female, 40. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/58 "2009-02-17T15:31:48Z")
I don’t think I ever called my Mom “Mommy.” Maybe when I was _very_ young. It is Mom and has been for as long as I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161/59 "2009-02-17T15:50:54Z")
I am 29 - female. I almost always call my mother “mommy”. Sometimes I call her ma or Mother (with a Nellie Olson pitch). When I really want to irritate her, I call her mommy dearest. That really gets her going. My sisters (30 and 31) also call her mommy. My middle sister started calling her moogie when she was younger and occasionally still does. Of course, she calls me eelie, which is nothing at all like my real name. She calls my oldest sister Mary (which is her name) She’s strange like that. Our father has always been daddy. I have no clue why. We all detest him and consider him a few steps **below** a sperm donor. Most people would have a rude name for someone like our father but for some odd reason, we always have and probably always will call him daddy (when talking about him, we never talk TO him). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-your-parents/486161.md?page=2)