#musings brought to you by me noticing how the show fans will call him adrian when no one in-universe does lol

[beevean]

I find fascinating that no one in the games calls Alucard by his birth name, not even his own father.

If you never read the manuals, you will never learn that his birth name is Adrian Fahrenheit Ţepeş, and has been ever since Dracula's Curse. He calls himself Alucard, everyone around him calls himself Alucard, and even Dracula accepts his son's new name. He greets him as such in SoTN and in Julius Mode in DoS, and the latter instance is even more striking, because by then he goes by Arikado - but to Dracula, he's still Alucard. Not Adrian.

And you'd think that he'd insist on calling his son by his birth name, right? As a way to control and demean him. "Oh, you chose that cute nickname for yourself? Charming. But you are still my Adrian, the boy I raised, and you can't escape from that." But no. Dracula has fully accepted that his son is so against him that he used his own name backwards: and I think that it's a sign that he has completely disowned him. He has no desire of pretty pleading him to join him by reminding him of their family ties: he will do so once Dracula has killed Lisa's last influence on the boy. It speaks of his utter coldness, and how estranged the two have become - after all, Alucard accuses him that he has completely lost his ability to love. (and, as a reminder, in the Japanese version of SoTN, Dracula doesn't even say farewell to Alucard before dying)

There is only one exception to this:

This is a different writer so take this with a grain of salt, but since it's the only instance we see Dracula's thoughts during the 1476 battle, it's interesting. Perhaps he still hasn't learned that his son has changed names, but I can believe he hadn't accepted yet, hence why he's so emotionally distraught. By the time of SoTN, his heart has hardened enough that he no longer cares, and he calls his own treacherous son with the name he has chosen to indicate that the two are enemies.