What do fantasy children call their parents?

Mine calls his Mum. I don't think it's particularly 20th century.

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Mother (who she lived with) and Geoff (who visits for two months of the year)

Actually, the more I write mum, the more I think it does fit.
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My FMC (7) and her brother (26) call their father "Father". Their mothers (they're half-siblings) aren't in the picture. There's one mother who has a kid, and I haven't had her address her mother. I do like the British "Mum" and may use that if I need to.

"Mother" and "Father" do sound formal, but remember, back then, "child abuse" wasn't in peoples' vocabulary. Kids mostly respected their elders, else they were whipped. My FMC as a matter of fact is threatened to be taken out back and whipped for being out too late in my second chapter. It was hard to write, but felt pretty real.

The lack of respect that young people have for their elders is mostly unique to the 20th and 21st centuries.

Also consider that governments in fantasy settings aren't as oppressive, or if you prefer, involved in peoples' day to day lives. Kings, queens, and empires didn't really govern how a man kept his household. Not at all like today in the US and UK and other western civilizations.

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Ma is good, Mam, or Mamma works too.

I'm using a unique case in one of my books. The 21st century girl uses Mom and Daddy.

The kids from the medieval-style fantasy world use Mother and Father, but not as often as they use Ma and Pa, or Mama and Papa. There's a girl in the book who was trapped inside a statue for two hundred and fifty years. When she is released, she continues to refer to her parents as Mother or Amma and Father or Appa, because that's what one called their parents when she was a girl. Over those centuries, the words kind of rearranged themselves to form the Mama and Papa that the rest of the characters know and love.

Mother or Father or any variation of them. Mom, Mummy, Mum, Mother, or Ma. /Pa, Pops, Father, Dad, Da, Daddy... etc. are perfectly fine. For the story I'm working on, I have character call her grandmother, "Grandmother" all the time. And as a word of caution, in case you're thinking it, please don't try to make up a name in this instance unless there's a really good reason to. It'll just confuse the reader. For humans, the word dad should stay dad no matter what realm you're in unless there's a really good reason to change it to something like Yoppy.

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Mater and Pater had a certain popularity at one time though not sure if it was every really used outside bad films to indicate upper-class twits :)

My FMC calls her parents Mother and Papa (she's considerably closer with her father than her mother).
My MMCs call their mother Mum.

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fantasy Parents like real Parents are called: "The people ruining my life."

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wait, I thought all fantasy children were orphans...? ;)

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My characters either call their parents Mama and Papa or Mother and Father.

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The only character I have associating with his "mother" (she sort of adopted him - not officially, but he sees her as his mother) calls her "Mama". Technically, he should be far more formal with her, but he's having a tough enough time not calling her Mama at every turn and, honestly, she sort of likes it. In her mind, he's still her kitten.

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My NaNo is set modern day, so it's "Mom" and "Dad" for the most part.

However, I did write a medieval fantasy novel, and not all of my characters were orphans. Let's see...my MC called her mother by her first name, Maria, because they were seperated for years when said MC was very little. Her father died, so I didn't have to worry about that.

Let's see. The daughter of my one supporting character (her name is Annie, incidentally...she was supposed to be a supporting character but ended up having little to no involvement in the plot) calls her parents "Mother" and "Dad". Not that her relationship is better with her dad, but I see "Mom" as being more modern than "Dad." My MC's cousins call their parents "Mother" and "Father."

As for other relations, my MC calls her aunt and her uncle by their first names. her cousins, however, call their uncle "Uncle Jonathan". Grandparents aren't particularly prominent in the story, but when they do show up they're called "Grandfather" and "Grandmother."

Other things kids could call their parents would be Mama and Papa. I see "mum" as being more British than medieval. (How I wish I was British--I LOOOVE their accents. I watch a lot of British sitcoms, in addition to the Chronicles of Narnia movies, so I can pull off a decent accrent, but people would give me funny looks and it would be rather difficult to maintain all the time.))

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I just use MOm and dad

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In Tamora Pierce's novels she uses "Ma" and "Da" which I like quite a bit. "Da" sounds nicer on the tongue than "Pa," and I've always been impartial to "mum" but I guess it just depends on your characters and their surroundings.

Like, in my story the one character whose parents are actually present in the story calls them "Mother" and "Father" or by their first names, but thats because she's not very close to her parents.

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In Tamora Pierce's novels she uses "Ma" and "Da" which I like quite a bit. "Da" sounds nicer on the tongue than "Pa," and I've always been impartial to "mum" but I guess it just depends on your characters and their surroundings.

Like, in my story the one character whose parents are actually present in the story calls them "Mother" and "Father" or by their first names, but thats because she's not very close to her parents.

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2007 - Name: Horse_Writer; Title: The Incredible Animals of Blue Hill Farm
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Depending on the time period, it could be any of the aforementioned. "Mom" and "Dad" are more modern versions, though, so if you're writing a dated piece, I'd recommend avoiding those.

"Mother" and "Father" were typically used by families that stood on formality; nobility, strict households, or by children who held their parents in high or disdained regard.

"Ma" and "Da" were used by families that were less formal; the peasantry, or by children who had a very relaxed and open relationship with their parents. Alternate forms were "Mum" and "Da", "Ma" and "Pa"... or depending on what country your story takes place, there may be local colloquialisms for the same, which would take a little bit of research.

Children in fantasy, particularly older children (teenagers and nearly-grown types), sometimes take on terms of endearment for their parents (though it's typically the Mother in particular). I've seen characters in published novels refer to their mothers as "dearheart" or "love" or "dear one".

A lot of it just depends on what YOU feel your character would be comfortable with using. :)

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Seriously, just listen to everyone else. I simply am amusing myself while procrastinating, and I found the question kind of funny, until I read your post.

I've used Mam and Tad, in previous work, these are Welsh versions of the names.

I'm using Ma and Da.

When my MC talks about other people's parents he still uses Ma and Da (as in "Johan's Ma makes the best meat pies.")

My character's son calls him 'Baba'.

If the child is young enough, why not try Mam', or Ama?

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Thanks TheSaphireAlchemist! I have had exactly this problem with my NaNo story - in previous fantasy works I have used various solutions (Ma and Da, Mama and Papa, Mother and Father, made up words) but none of them seemed to work in this setting. I have been using Mother and Father, but they seemed too formal for my farming folk. For a vaguely Celtic/Anglo-Saxon world though, Mam and Tad are perfect - thank you!

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Well, considering they're the parental terms in Latin, I think they were used relatively informally at one time. :)

As for the rest of this thread, I'm pretty much in agreement -- certainly don't change them much, since "mama" and "dada" are two of the easiest sounds for a baby to make and therefore relatively universal, at least across Europe.

Me, I'm writing early Arthurian stuff this year (as in Arthur's still a teenager early), so I'm stuck with real world terms one way or another, and you're right, the formality does communicate something (there's a reason Sir Ector's "Father" in public and "Papa" in private, but he may be something of a special case. . . .). I'm not sure what I'll be using for the truly little kids -- the young Orkney princes and princess being the ones that come to mind, here -- although I suspect Morgause will be "Mam" to the younger ones, much to her annoyance. Their father Lot I'm not so sure about, although he is very definitely "Sir" to his eleven-year-old heir Gawaine. But again, that's something of a special case. I usually wind up using "Ma" and "Pa"/"Da" in most of my alternate worlds, unless the characters have some particular reason to be formal with their parents.

Cheers!

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