# When growing up, what did you call your father? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200 "2010-04-15T13:02:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/41 "2010-04-15T17:56:46Z")
Papi or Papito. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/42 "2010-04-15T17:59:59Z")
My sister and I used “Dad”, but Mom and her siblings used “Pap” or “Pappy”, and Dad himself used “Pop” for his father. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/43 "2010-04-15T18:03:18Z")
Called him “Daddy” until I got to about college age and started calling him Dad. White southern girl, mid 30s. So it comes out more like “deddy” or “daeeee-di” ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/44 "2010-04-15T18:21:27Z")
I find the lack of “Pop” odd, since it’s used fairly often in fiction. I’m polling, actually, because I’m writing a first person narrative and I’m trying to decide how the character refers to his father. I had considered “Pop,” but I wondered if its use in New England in the 1960s would be unlikely. Seems its use anywhere is unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/45 "2010-04-15T18:23:49Z")
I called him “Mark” (his name) once. Once. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/46 "2010-04-15T18:30:30Z")
> [@](#): > > I find the lack of “Pop” odd, since it’s used fairly often in fiction. I don’t know _anyone_ who called his father “Pop”, “Pa”, or “Papa”. I never would have considered it – it seems weird. Besides “Pop” was reserved for my grandfather. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/47 "2010-04-15T18:35:38Z")
95% of the time it was “Dad.” The other times, if I knew what was good for me, it was “Sir.” Southern WASP. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/48 "2010-04-15T18:39:57Z")
Dad, 1960s, WSAP, Southern Ontario, Canada. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/49 "2010-04-15T18:47:36Z")
Other: “Sir” I’m an Army brat. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/50 "2010-04-15T18:50:42Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Dad, 1960s, WSAP, Southern Ontario, Canada. Same here, except I’m a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Pagan) 🙂 “Pop” always sounded terribly old-fashioned to me. Edit: my mother’s father was “Grampa” and my father’s father was “Granddad” (except he passed on before I was born, so I never spoke to him, just about him). ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/51 "2010-04-15T18:55:17Z")
Dad, late 40s, midwest. Mom was usually Mom, but I would at times call her Ma because it got her goat ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/52 "2010-04-15T18:59:10Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Papi or Papito. You did not. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/53 "2010-04-15T19:01:19Z")
“Appa” (/əpə/, homophonous to “up a”). Tamilian background. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/54 "2010-04-15T19:02:20Z")
Momma and Daddy. Sometimes in jest I’ll say “my sainted Father” or if I’m being pretend-formal I’ll call him Father. He will be 80 in June but he’ll always be Daddy to me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/55 "2010-04-15T19:14:00Z")
My bio-dad I didn’t really spend much time with. “Dad” or “Daddy”, usually, though. My stepfather I call by his given name, or occasionally “Da”. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/56 "2010-04-15T22:07:38Z")
Geezer, Old Man, O O (just the two letters), the name that was on his actual birth certificate for 50 years before anyone noticed, his first name, manslave…really, he answers to many names. Of course, he has some pretty bad ones for me, so it evens out. I voted Daddy though, because that is him most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/57 "2010-04-15T22:52:32Z")
Any time I addressed my father it was through [this song and dance](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ck-Uo52MOg). ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/58 "2010-04-15T23:30:20Z")
Was raised by my grandfather. Called him “Pop-pop” when I was a tiny tot and “Pop” when I was an adolescent. So that’s what I put. By the time I was a teenager I called him “grandpa,” though. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/59 "2010-04-15T23:39:56Z")
> [@VernWinterbottom](#): > > I find the lack of “Pop” odd, since it’s used fairly often in fiction. > > I’m polling, actually, because I’m writing a first person narrative and I’m trying to decide how the character refers to his father. I had considered “Pop,” but I wondered if its use in New England in the 1960s would be unlikely. > > Seems its use anywhere is unlikely. I asked my parents who grew up in New England and were kids/teens in the 60s if they knew anyone who used “Pop” back then instead of “Dad” and their answers were no, unless you count Patty Duke and Dobbie Gillis. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200/60 "2010-04-16T00:41:31Z")
My husband was given the nickname “Big Papa E” by the kids several years ago. That got shortened to “Papa E” and then “Pops”. So he is one dad who is called “Pops” by his kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-growing-up-what-did-you-call-your-father/536200.md?page=4)