OT Question: Why didn't the Turtles shorten their names?
 

In the original toon, the Turtles and their allies always called each other by their full name. In every other incarnation they always said Leo, Raph, Mikey and Donny, they even did that in Next Mutation. It would have been easier if they did call each other by their nicknames and let Splinter just refer to them by their full name. I wonder why they were always called by their full name.

I kinda like them being called by their full name, its ok for them between them to do it occasionally but not all the time like in 2k3.

Everything was more formal in the FW series for some reason. Seldom did Splinter call them his "sons" but often he called the "students" or "wards." They were more a close group of friends than a family.

Splinter called them his sons in a few episodes.

Let's see....
I can remember off hand:
Enter the Shredder - "Head upward, my sons. Find a way around all this."
Green with Jealousy - "Work quickly, my son...Your brother Turtles.'

Heck he calls April and Carter his children about as much as the Turtles.

I think now since Splinter was Yoshi in the OT that he didn't truly see the Turtles as sons, but rather these four creatures that he got as pets became people that needed to be guided and cared for. Since Yoshi was a ninja master, he reared them as such.

are you trying to tell us that Splinters son in the Nick series will be Carter and/or April!

Yes...teen April is Yoshi's daughter....:P

I think it was for simplifying things, and not get children confused.

Then Playmates and the movies screwed that up...cause they abbreviated the names. Heck, I think when I played with my friends we shortened the names...

I do wonder if its because the writers wanted their names to be easily recognizable to children, and have their names be the same in every episode.

The movies were just one-shot movies, but the show went on for 190+ episodes.

And the 4kids series went on for 156...so what?

when I have been talking to children about TMNT, it wasn't uncommon that they reacted in questions when I used the shorten names. So I thought about it in that sense, it wouldn't confuse a younger audience with multiple names

Maybe as a former human, Yoshi/Splinter would have felt awkward thinking of humanoid reptiles as his "children." It might raise questions and be a socially taboo dinner topic.:P

I always thought that was an interesting part of Splinter's character in all incarnations: how he referred to the Turtles. I prefer the warmer, father approach, although I understand the need for a straight up caring sensei, too.

The first cartoon was before the Turtles were known. They didn't even know if the cartoon was even going to be a success. The first season could have been the end of it, or even the second season.

Giving the Turtles all recognizable names without shortening it helped them become well known to both kids and licenses at the time.

And yet in 1990, just 6 years after they were created and 3 years after the series debuted (or between the 3rd and 4th season) Playmates started using the shortened names with Leo: The Sewer Samurai, Don: The Undercover Turtle, Raph: The Space Cadet, and Mike: The Sewer Surfer.

I guess the shortened names might have gotten popular after the first live-action movie really emphasized them.

True, the 1st movie also saw a theatrical release in 90, and that very well could have been it. Have we thought to as Francis Ross?...:D