It's complete weird that A17 and A18 stopped using their real name

[Sensiblesaiyans]

I get that during the android saga, they may have been ok with being called this, having recently been awoken by Dr. Gero and spending years being brainwashed into killer robots. However, both 18 and 17 have families, friends, children and had enough time to acclimatize back to having a normal life. This behavior of still holding on to a name that Gero gave them is super weird. It's basically a slave name that they have chosen to keep being addressed by. You would think that 18 for example would want her daughter to know her by her actual name that she was born with.



Even if we argue that they may have forgotten about their past life, I would imagine that someone who was enslaved to Dr. Gero would choose to adopt a new name for themselves, over keeping a name that was given to them by a man who kidnapped and turned them into androids against their will. Also, it's rather dehumanizing that all the other characters would address them like this. You would think Krillin most of all would want to address his wife by her actual name and not just keep calling her A18.

[JulieYBM]

Sometimes, people change their names. Sometimes, we take on names that bond us to our life-defining and traumatic experiences. It's conceivable that they simply felt like they were now new people as a way of coping. After all, they both wound up with new families.

Also, they probably just have doll kinks.

[Jack Bz]

Do they remember their real names? Their new names seem to pretty imprinted onto them. There's no reason they would have even started using them otherwise

[MasenkoHA]

Didn’t Toriyama provide their real names years after the manga ended? It would be weird for Super to just randomly start using them.

I think it was assumed they forgot much of their lives prior to being converted into cyborgs by Gero, including their birth names

[nineko]

Still, it's weird that none of the other characters ever thought to ask, like, "hey, did you have an actual name before you became a Cyborg?", "huh, I don't know, my memories have been wiped", and there you have it, but no. Probably unrelated, but it's been shown that Hedo's cyborgs retained their previous memories, at least to a degree, so yeah, it's probably just Toriyama being Toriyama.

And it's even weirder with Mark, you'd expect at least Videl to address his father with his real name, but also no.

[JulieYBM]

Why would Videl call her dad by his first name, unless she hated the guy?

[nineko]

Sorry, that's not what I meant, you're right, I should have worded it better.

What I meant is, if someone asks me what my dad's name is, I would simply answer with his actual name, what do you think Videl would say? She once told Gohan that she's Mr. Satan's daughter, but that was a segue to a conversation about the Cell games, so one has to wonder...

[JulieYBM]

Sorry, that's not what I meant, you're right, I should have worded it better.

What I meant is, if someone asks me what my dad's name is, I would simply answer with his actual name, what do you think Videl would say? She once told Gohan that she's Mr. Satan's daughter, but that was a segue to a conversation about the Cell games, so one has to wonder...

I figured she said that because she wanted Gohan to know that she is Mr. Satan's daughter. Mr. Satan's a public personality, after all, so it makes sense to use that name, especially if she wants to intimidate Gohan or whatever.

[MasenkoHA]

Sorry, that's not what I meant, you're right, I should have worded it better.

What I meant is, if someone asks me what my dad's name is, I would simply answer with his actual name, what do you think Videl would say? She once told Gohan that she's Mr. Satan's daughter, but that was a segue to a conversation about the Cell games, so one has to wonder...

Videl: I’m Mark’s daughter

Gohan: Who the fuck is that?

[LightBing]

Like Julie wrote, it might be their way of coping with their new reality. It's a way for them to gain control.
No matter what they'll never change back, they have to deal with it.

Toriyama doomed them: the Dragon Balls failed, they suffered a consequence in the Dragon World more significant than death.

He could have easily just made them human, yet he didn't. Like many small things in the writing of Dragon Ball, it's one of that non-explicit storytelling.

If you don't want to go with the "they forgot" justification. The above could explain it, even it's not something Toriyama had actively in his mind, it's still a choice with consequences.

Regarding everyone else calling them like that, if it was indeed the characters choice to be named as such, then everyone else is just respecting their wishes.
It would be dehumanizing to call them something else. That's what bullies do, it's beyond disrespect, it's denying who they are.

[SaiyamanMS]

Still, it's weird that none of the other characters ever thought to ask, like, "hey, did you have an actual name before you became a Cyborg?", "huh, I don't know, my memories have been wiped", and there you have it, but no.

At what point would they have been able to ask the question? #17 and #18 are antagonists up until Cell turns up to absorb them and the only conversation we see in the aftermath of Cell is when #18 still isn’t comfortable around the Dragon Team and basically fucks off the first chance she gets.

Next thing we know it’s 7 years later and she’s married to Kuririn, I’m sure they had that conversation at some point off screen.

[Koitsukai]

Krilin still calls her "18", they certainly have a special bond and have been close for 7 years. If, off-screen they can have and raise a child together, they can, also off-screen, discuss about her actual name. And if she is still called by her number(age, according to DBS) by the one man she doesn't hate and respects, then probably she has a good reason for it. I wouldn't say weird, it's Krilin respecting her wishes.

About other characters, she is so stand-offish that only Goku would be bold enough to ask that... but does he really care? by the Buu arc, he still thought she was a robot. I don't see someone like Yamcha taking that liberty with her, and Bulma can read a room and knows better.

About Mr. Satan. I don't see why Videl would call her father "Mark" instead of "dad".

[GreatSaiyaman123]

17 and 18 even call each other by their android names. I have the theory that their past life just wasn’t a very good one (to put it lightly) and they took the events of the Cell Saga to start over.

Was it ever confirmed by AT or any external material that they were runaways? Or am I confusing canon for fanon?