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Just curious. Because I think it's very "rude" in the Chinese Culture where I grew up in, to use the real names of people older than you. You have to address them by relationship like "father/dad" or "older brother" or "oldest aunt" "2nd aunt" "3rd aunt" (ordered by who was born first). Like I don't think you are supposed to say Aunt [Name] or Uncle [Name]. Names are never used, only the relationship.

I'm under the impression that some Westerners, particularly Americans, apparantly are on first-name basis with parents... like either because they are very close, or very distant... is that really a thing irl, or is that just the media? I think I saw TV/Movie scenes where the kids (or maybe adult children) called their parent by their first names.

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[-] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I've always done that with both my parents, but then again I'm Danish. It's a radically different culture. Families are not seen as particularly inherently important here. It's usually not even a meritocratic assessment of the family as a unit - it's an individual one. You might like some people, you might dislike others. Either way, is has almost nothing to do with whether a blood relation exists or not.

"An asshole's an asshole."

Edit: Along similar philosophical lines, there's no particular veneration of age. Age and wisdom might be proportionally related, but one does not guarantee the other. Some people manage only to grow more foolish with age. Precocious children exist.

I'd be very interested in exploring the differences between cultures more with you, assuming you're willing.

[-] TheFermentalist@reddthat.com 5 points 2 weeks ago

My second son calls his mother and I by our first names and has done since he was 5. None of our other kids do that, it is something he decided to do, and has continued. He is now 16

[-] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

I did, and my child does. We have learned that we're both autistic. Maybe something to look into lol

[-] TheFermentalist@reddthat.com 1 points 1 week ago

We already know that he is, and so am I

[-] TwoDogsFighting@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Scottish here, pretty sure that my mum would come down from heaven and fucking smite me if I tried that with my dad, gods or no gods.

[-] groet@feddit.org 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah i do. My mother told me that when i was young, other moms judged her for it, like it means she is not my mother or some shit. But also she told me, at the public pool, every time a child yelled mom/dad ALL parents had to look to see if it was their child while she could relax until she heard explicitly her name.

[-] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

(USA, Los Angeles)

Now that you mention it, I call my parents Mom and Dad (unless they really need to listen), but my kids call me by my first name. I just thought it was a generational thing, who cares.

[-] spiffy_spaceman@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

The douche kid we didn't really like on swim team in HS called his dad Jeff. A teammate was like "you call your dad by his name?" "Yeah. It's his name." "But, he's your dad."

To me, it makes it feel less like a happy family and more like a boss/employee relationship. His logic was sound, but there's more to it than that.

[-] Professorozone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

My nephew does that. I think it's weird.

I DID do that with my step-father but that's different, I think, because when my mom was dating I wasn't going to call him Dad. And after years of calling him by his name it felt weird to start calling him anything else.

[-] TheFlopster@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I've never called my parents by their first names, and I've never known someone who did.

I called my grandparents "Grandma and Grandpa [Last Name]". But my aunts and uncles were "Aunt [First Name]" and "Uncle [First Name]". I would say that's pretty standard for the USA.

[-] hanrahan@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Same in Australia

[-] Noctambulist@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

I'm German and switched from Mama/Papa (mom/dad) to their first names sometime in my early teens as did my sister. I couldn't say how exactly it happened—just felt too old to use the former. But that's not universal here; I know people who still use the nicknames in their forties.

[-] WalrusDragonOnABike@reddthat.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

I mostly call my moms by their first names. I almost never directly refer to them as "mom." When talking about them to people who know them, I refer to them by their names. Basically only call them my mom to people who don't know my parents.

I'm in the US. But I think part of the reason I do that is having multiple moms. OTOH, they are trying to teach our niece to call them grammy and nana and I know my cousins have a similar way of differentiating their moms.

[-] starlinguk@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

My son calls me mum but his other mum (my wife) by her first name.

[-] GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca 2 points 1 week ago

I almost always called family from the previous generations by title and first name, or just title. So, Grandpa, Aunt Sue, etc. Cousins and siblings got first name only. My kids call their immediate parents mom and dad, and their step-parents mom or my wife's first name. I rarely associate with my ex or her husband, and they refer to him when talking to me by his first name. If they were close enough to him to refer to him as dad, I'd be happy for them to have that good a relationship.

[-] mintiefresh@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Vietnamese Canadian here.

I'd rather die than call my dad by his first name 😂

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

No, my kids call me mom and yes I'd think it kinda rude if they first named me.

But

My step-kids call me by my first name, and my kids call my husband by his first name, and that is fine with both of us somehow.

When kids are small here, they usually call adults Mr. or Ms. First Name. Older kids to teachers Mr. or Ms. Last Name, but my kids who are older still called me Ms. First Name. Not much Sir and Ma'am anymore but I still hear it sometimes.

[-] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Speaking as a white person of mostly Italian-American ancestry in my late 40s from New York, USA.

My mother and father were always called "Mom" and "Dad." They divorced, my dad remarried first, and my stepmother has always been called by her first name; my sister and I were never asked to call her "Mom," and it would have been very weird for anyone to ask us to do so when we already had a mom who wasn't her. When my mother remarried, he was an immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country and we briefly fell into calling our stepfather "Papi" which is Spanish for "Dad." That was a little weird, though, and we went back to using his first name.

The cliche' you mention from Western TV and films of a child calling a mother or father by their first name is often a standard joke about the kid acting rebellious and rejecting their parents' authority, and usually is depicted as a brief goofy phase which passes by the end of the episode, and not meant to depict a realistic ongoing relationship between parent and child. Alternatively, it could be illustrating a more nontraditional "hippie" family culture as noted by some others in these replies.

As for uncles and aunts, calling them "Uncle (name)" or "Aunt/Auntie (name)" is generally the norm in many Western cultures. I generally call my own "Uncle/Aunt (name)." However, it does very much vary.

Sometimes the formal "Aunt/Uncle" address is more of a thing for children, and when one reaches adulthood they might drop the "uncle" or "aunt" title and just use first names as their relationship transitions from one between a child and adult to a more equal dynamic between adults.

In some families the dynamic may even be different for individual aunts or uncles depending on how close the family relationship is; if it's a family member who lives nearby and you see all the time and have a very close personal relationship with, or if it's a distant relative you may only meet in person and communicate with rarely over the course of years, one may find the individual relationship (and, consequently, the form of address) develops differently with that family member. I call my close aunts and uncles who are regular presences in my life "Aunt/Uncle (name)," but if I encountered a distant relative from far away who I haven't seen or spoken with in 30 years I'd probably just use their first name.

Also, in some families "Uncle" or "Aunt/Auntie" can be a form of respectful address for older adults even if they are not family relations. In my childhood some of my mother's closest friends who were regular presences in our lives were addressed as "Aunt/Uncle (name)" despite there being no blood relations between us, though when I grew up the "Uncle/Aunt" title was dropped and we just call them by their names as our adult-to-adult friendship continued. This was not the case on my father's side of the family, where adult friends were always just called by their first names.

Particular mention must be made of the use of the terms "Uncle/Unc" or "Aunt/Auntie" among and toward elder members of the Black community with which one is not related. It is a very delicate issue, and as a white person I don't use it and don't claim any authority to speak on the subject, but I think it's important to learn more about. Some more info can be found starting here and here, but it should be discussed with members of that community if you wish to know more.

[-] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I used their first names until I was 18.
When I went to college, nobody knew who I was talking about when I said their names, and it got me in the habit of saying "mom" and "dad", and it stuck.

My child, who is young, calls my wife and I by a rotating set of terms, like mom/dad, mommy/daddy, and our actual names. Same with the grandparents. There is no intention behind it, it's just whatever comes to mind first.

[-] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago

My mother doesn't like her name so I use it when she exasperates me (¬_¬). It's a little jab.

[-] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago

My kiddo calls me by my first name

My oldest child is the only one who calls me by my first name. When I adopted her, I told her she didn't have to call me "dad" unless she wanted to. I've heard her refer to me as "dad" when she thinks I'm not in earshot.

[-] EtnaAtsume@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah I do. Mainly it's because my dad was always off working and so my grandparents, or his parents, did most of the work of raising me. And since he was their son, of course they were in the habit of calling him by his name. It stuck.

[-] Acamon@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I've probably done it occasionally, when calling them in a public space shouting 'Daaad' as an adult feels a bit weird. Same with talking about them to a third person, I might use their names rather than say "my mum" the whole time.

But face to face, talking with them? It'd feel pretty weird, too impersonal and distant. If I saw someone else doing it tontjeir parents, I'd probably note it as unusual, but would be shocked.

[-] Gonzako@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

I call my mom, "Gestating progenitor" as an inside joke but anytime I call her by her name she calls it out. Tho, I get it. Worked pretty hard not to get called mom

[-] homologous@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 weeks ago

I'm an American. There definitely are some people who call their parents by their first names, but I have never done so (in a serious manner). I used to have a friend who would call her adopted mother by her first name, but that's the only time I've ever witnessed it personally. If someone were to refer to their parents by first name, I would assume they're very distant.

Even though I've had complicated relationships with both my parents (as they were both abusive), I would never consider calling them by first name. I did so once in a joking manner with my dad many years ago, and his response scared me into never doing that again, lmao. It's strictly "Mom" and "Dad" for them, even if I were to go no-contact in the future

It's different with other family members, though. I similarly call my grandparents "Grandma" or "Grandpa," but I'll say "Grandma [First Name]" for example if I need to clarify whether it's my maternal or paternal grandparent. I've only ever called aunts and uncles by their first names, but I'll also clarify with "Aunt [First Name]" if the person I'm talking to isn't familiar with them by name.

There's definitely some level of respect expected to those of older generations, especially when blood-related, but I'm really against the whole idea. I despise the entire maternal side of my family; like, if I don't like them, then I don't like them. I'm not gonna put up with someone who's a dick just because we're "related."

[-] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

As an American, I can second that family outside of immediate family is often called by nicknames to differentiate, as you state. Especially Aunts and Grandmothers. GG gets used here (Great Grandma). As people live longer is pretty necessary or it gets quite confusing.

[-] Blubber28@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

First name is very rare here in The Netherlands, but these days it is quite common to use the "casual" form of you (je/jij) rather than the polite form (u). That was very different some 70 years ago.

[-] the_grass_trainer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

I know someone that calls his parents by their names, and I've asked him why. He never has a reason other than it's a habit.

If i didn't know any better I'd think he disliked them.

[-] Zagam@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

I did. My parents were hippies and thought it was weird to call people anything other than their names. So they never tried to get me to call them anything but their names. At one point in maybe jr high I tried goingbwithbmom and dad but it didn't take.

[-] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago

I would often use both the title and the person's nickname, but never just the name. So, for example, "Papa Mike" but not "Mike" or "Michael". It made more sense for grandparents because I had two of each, but I did it for my parents too.

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Fun fact, the word for paternal grandparent and maternal grantparents are different in Chinese. 爺爺 and 嫲嫲 for paternal grandpa and grandma, 公公 and 婆婆 for maternal grandpa and grandma. At least in Cantonese (or maybe its Taishanese, no clue, I always mix up Cantonese and Taishanese because I sometimes hear Taishanese when adults were talking to each other when I was a kid), idk if Mandarin is the same, I don't have any family that use Mandarin at home.

There is no confusing the paternal and maternal grandparents, its totally different words

[-] zloubida@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

In Swedish it's also different. Mor is mother, far is father; mormor is the maternal grandma, farmor is the paternal grandma, morfar is the paternal grandpa and farfar the paternal grandpa. I love this system, it's almost the only thing I remember from my study of Swedish 😅.

[-] troed@fedia.io 0 points 2 weeks ago

Stopped using "mom" and "dad" at about the same time as I moved out. Can't really explain exactly why, just seemed like part of growing up amd becoming an independent adult of my own.

/Swede

[-] konalt@lemmy.world 0 points 2 weeks ago

I do! I have a pretty good relationship with both my parents, but when I was around 9 years old I felt weird calling them by this "special" name unlike everybody else. They don't seem to mind?

[-] underreacting@literature.cafe 0 points 2 weeks ago

Europe.

I'm very close with my mom, I call her interchangeably her name or "mom". My friends know her and I speak of her often at work and in general because we hang out a lot, so most people have met her and/or know her well by her actual name.

I am not as close with my dad and call him dad most of the time, unless trying to get his attention - he is very bad at reacting or responding to anything but his name if he isn't listening fully. I mostly spend time with him in family situations, unlike my mom who I consider friend as well as family.

It's not the most common to call your parents by their name here, but it's not super unusual or disrespectful either.

this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2025
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