Hi.
After giving up on trying to smooth out a loop causing input command, I’d like to ask the community for names a child would address their parents with.
Like mom, mum, ma, dad, da, pa,
I’m looking for international stuff.
(And genderneutral names)
Thank you
2 Likes
Would you like things in other languages or just different forms of those terms of address?
Mom and Dad are acceptable worldwide, I think.
International stuff, so, yeah, multiple languages.
I gave people the possibility to pick something else before. I won’t let a loopyloop stop me from allowing genderfluid players/chars to change the form of address.
Hm. I don’t think genderfluid PCs necessarily need to change the form of address of their parents, unless the parents themselves are genderfluid.
2 Likes
Mama and papa are sometimes used. Mother and father is formal, and mommy and daddy is usually seen as more childish.
In Filipino, for father, there’s ama, tatay, tay (this is an abbreviation), and itay. For mother, there’s ina, nanay, nay (this is an abbreviation), and inay.
4 Likes
There’s “magulang” which translates to parent (it can also translate to “old” or “wise” or “ripe”), but it’s mostly used to refer to people rather than a form of address. You don’t call someone “magulang” in addressing them, but you can introduce someone as your “magulang” or call a person your “magulang.”
(This got complicated. Sorry.)
2 Likes
Ma/pa seem to be commonly used across many different languages.
Are you looking for a specific degree of intimacy as well? For example, мамочка (mamochka) is a more affectionate version of мама, like “mommy” but unlike the English version it’s also used by adults for their parents. It and папочка (papochka) are the most common terms used (not sure on gender-neutral options, sorry) but there are several possible terms of endearment, with varying levels of intimacy, due to the language’s propensity for diminutives (Slavic languages in general, I think, not just Russian).
Either way, imo it’d probably be best to let the player choose what name they want and the associated intimacy. Could you ask for help from the forum in sorting out your input problem?
The input itself is not the problem. It’s the background check to filter slurs or check for double names etc
Anglophone, but if it’s useful I call my parents Mum and Dad, and my toddler calls me and my wife Mummy and Mama. A friend’s child calls her Mumma. I’ve heard Baba used as a gender neutral parental address.
3 Likes
I gave up and invented one for my story. That may not be useful to you, sorry.
I am sure baba is not very gender neutral.
Infact its meaning varies in different languages.
It refers to old women or grandma(rarely) in Japanese and in other Asian languages like hindi/sanskrit it refers to wise old man(mostly of religious nature) etc.
I believe it will be more confusing than being a gender neutral reference.
In Germany some people may call their mothers Mutta or Mutti and fathers Vatta, not sure about gender neutral names though. Also, a disclaimer. I’m not German, but I did do some research for a German character, so take this information with a grain of salt.
I wish you luck in your research though 
1 Like
Well, ‘Mutta’ and ‘Vatta’ is a bit difficult to use as a form of adress because it’s very slang-heavy I’d say.
‘Mudda’ (which is how I’d write it) I’ve only ever heard used in ‘yo mama’ jokes.
‘Papa’ and ‘Mama’ is the most common form as far as my experience goes.
1 Like
In other languages this is used somewhat commonly as a cognate of “Papa”.
In addition to tatay, i’ve heard the term “tatang” being used. (this is from a different Filipino dialect; can’t be specifc on which one though. nanang is for the mother). i don’t know if there are gender-neutral affectionate terms for parents in other Filipino dialects but i’ll try to research on some.
since there is no gender-neutral term, my sister also started the culture of referring to either of our parents as “parent(s)” as our go-to for a gender-neutral term. eg. “Saan na sina (Where are either of our) parents?”
2 Likes
In Mexican Spanish we have:
Mother:
Mamá (“mother”/“mom”)
Ma (“mom”)
Mamí (“mommy”)
Madre (“mother” though it’s not really something to call your mother, it’s more just describing her position in your family.)
Father:
Papá (“father”/“dad”)
Pa (“dad”)
Papí (“daddy”)
Padre (“father”/“parent” again, you only use it to refer to someone’s position/role in the family. Not only that, Spanish is a gendered language, as a result the term used for all parents, mothers and fathers, is the one used tk refer to fathers. I imagine most romance languages are like this.)
Also note that, as in any culture, the terms used to refer to your parent evolve over time.
For me, I called my parents Mamí and Papí for as long as I could remember. My mother only ever refers to my dad to me (as in, “ask your father”) as Papa (“tu papa”), while dad always calls mom to us Ma (“tu ma”).
Then, around six-ish, when I decided that I was a big kid and also my little brother was born and I was displaced as the cute youngest I started calling them Ma and Pa.
I never once called them Mamá or Papá except that one time I got lost at Target, because I generally viewed it as a tad formal, for whatever reason, and thus never use it.
Fun fact: In Spanish, the Pope is called "El Papa" (no accent mark).
As a young Roman Catholic child I had no idea that ‘Papa’ was separate, etymologically-speaking, from the general term for fathers, “Papá” (accent mark). As a result, I thought that everyone was just calling the Pope, “the Dad” as though he was everyone’s father.
Not only that, I was convinced the Pope was actually God for an embarrassingly long time because, if he’s everyone’s dad then he must be God because he created everyone! #KidLogic
I had similar confusion over the term, ‘First Lady’ in American politics as I thought that meant she was Eve, like…
Wow.
I didn’t know the Truth™ until I was about five and innocently asked, while watching Independence Day with Will Smith, why the First Lady was married to the President if she was married to Adam. Cue, “Who the hell is Adam? There’s no Adam in the movie.”
So cringe, ugh.
3 Likes
I call my mother ma or mamá