Welcome to the Tropes Adoption Agency. If you do not have an index, get yourself one here.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Pet in a Box: A (usually young and adorable) cat or dog found in a cardboard box, who usually gets adopted by the hero.
- Adopt-a-Prodigy: Adopting a child because of their intelligence or special skills.
- Adopt-a-Servant: Someone adopts a child to work for them.
- Adopted into Royalty: Someone gets adopted into a royal family.
- Adopted to the House: Taking in a homeless acquaintance until they can find a permanent home.
- Adopting the Abused: A character who's been abused in the past ends up in a healthy relationship.
- Adoption Angst: A character finds out they are adopted and doesn't take it well.
- Adoption Conflict: A fight breaks out between a character's biological and adoptive parents over who's really the character's family.
- Adoption Diss: An insult that has to do with being adopted.
- Adoption-Induced Pregnancy: A woman gets pregnant shortly after adopting a child
- Adoption Is Not an Option: A couple wants a child but never considers adopting one, even if they hypothetically could.
- Adoptive Name Change: Someone gets their name changed upon being adopted.
- Adoptive Peer Parent: Someone adopts a son or daughter who's too old to be their biological child.
- Adopt the Food: Turning a potential meal into a child or pet.
- Adult Adoptee: Someone is adopted into a family despite being legally (almost) an adult.
- Anachronistic Orphanage: A traditional orphanage in a setting where there logically shouldn't be one.
- Artificial Family Member: Somebody who was made instead of born and sees their creator as family.
- Baby as Payment: A child is used as payment for something and (usually) raised by the adult that paid for them.
- Changeling Tale: Fairies take a human child and replace it with one of their own.
- Children Raise You: Someone (usually an inexperienced parent) is forced to adopt a kid, who teaches them how to be a better person.
- Circus Brat: Often (but not always) an orphan or runaway who grows up with a circus or carnival.
- Criminal Found Family: A group of criminals adopts each other.
- Don't Split Us Up: A group of siblings resists attempts to separate them, for instance by someone adopting one but not all of them.
- Doorstop Baby: Someone (usually the mom, although sometimes the dad or another person) leaves a baby on someone else's doorstep, usually leading to the person whose doorstep it is adopting the baby.
- Easy Adoption: Legal adoption is depicted as being simple with few obstacles.
- Enemy Becomes Family: Sometimes, a person is adopted by their enemy/enemies.
- Evil Orphan: A couple adopts an orphan (normally a young girl but sometimes a young boy) who turns out to be evil.
- Family of Choice: A group of friends sees themselves as a family.
- Family Relationship Switcheroo: Someone claims to be a different sort of relative (e.g., a parent pretends to be a sister, a grandparent pretends to be a parent, etc.)
- A Father to His Men: A military leader acts as a parent to his (or her) inferiors.
- Foster Kid: A child who's basically temporarily adopted.
- From Cousin to Honorary Sibling: Cousins raised together end up sharing a bond similar to that of siblings.
- Gene Hunting: Adopted child searches for their birth parents.
- Good Stepmother: A stepmother who is benevolent and loving towards her stepchild(ren); she may end up formally or informally adopting the stepchild(ren).
- Happily Adopted: A character is perfectly happy with being adopted.
- Heartwarming Orphan: An orphan child who normally ends up being adopted and is a good character who makes the audience emotional.
- Heritage–Face Turn: Someone has been fighting against a group, but then they find out that they were adopted, and their biological parents were part of that group (or a variation) so they stop fighting against that group.
- Honorary Uncle: Someone's parents' non-related friends call themselves the kids' uncles or aunts.
- Imprinting: A baby animal forms a bond with a person, another animal, or even an object, normally believing them to be a parent.
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: Someone, usually a child, wants to adopt a cute animal or kid.
- Interracial Adoption Struggles: Somebody adopts a child who's a different race or ethnicity, which subsequently causes problems.
- Interspecies Adoption: Somebody adopts a child who's a different species.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: A character looks after the child of someone they killed.
- Like a Son to Me: A character describes a younger friend as being like their son or daughter.
- Like Brother and Sister: Two best friends of the opposite genders who see each other as siblings and are occasionally falsely thought to be dating.
- Muggle Foster Parents: A Super Hero raised by adoptive parents without powers.
- Nephewism: A child is brought up by their aunt or uncle.
- New Parent Nomenclature Problem: Someone who was adopted or similar but whose birth parents are still alive feels unsure about calling the person "mom" or "dad".
- Not Blood, Not Family: An adopted character is denounced as not being "real family."
- Not Blood Siblings: An adopted character falls in love with their sibling, and it's condoned because they're not genetically related.
- Oblivious Adoption: Someone doesn't know they're adopted.
- Orc Raised by Elves: Someone from a villainous group is adopted by heroes.
- Parental Substitute: An adult and a child are good friends and the adult sort of acts as the child's parent.
- Pet Baby Wild Animal: A child tries to keep a baby wild animal as a pet and either the pet dies, the pet must be set free, or the pet stays as a pet.
- Platonic Co-Parenting: A child is raised by two or more people who are not romantically involved, often having been adopted (officially or unofficially) by at least one of them.
- Promotion to Parent: The eldest sibling acts like the younger siblings' parent.
- Raised by Grandparents: A child's grandparents raise them.
- Raised by Humans: A human adopts an animal as their child rather than pet.
- Raised by Natives: An orphan child is adopted by people from a world different from the one the orphan is from.
- Raised by Orcs: A child is raised by a species that's mostly or always evil.
- Raised by Rival: A child is raised by the rival or enemy of their parent.
- Raised by Robots: A robot raises a non-robot child.
- Raised by the Community: An entire community of people not related to a child raise the child.
- Raised by the Supernatural: A supernatural being raises a non-supernatural child.
- Raised by Wolves: Animals raise a human kid.
- Red-Headed Stepchild: A redhead who's teased for being ginger (not necessarily related to adoption but the name comes from adopted redheads).
- Replacement Goldfish: A character tries to replace their dead acquaintance (often their child by adopting another one).
- Resentful Guardian: A character is not happy about their new role of having to guard another character.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: A group of people who've been experimented on or created in a lab adopt each other as a family.
- Sinister Serial Adopter: A villainous character "adopts" multiple children, usually for unwholesome purposes, usually via kidnapping or other underhanded methods.
- Sink or Swim Fatherhood: A man is expected to raise his child but he's inexperienced.
- Team Dad: A bossy leader (or almost-leader) of a group, who's usually a man.
- Team Mom: Somebody, usually a woman, who is the friendly leader of a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits.
- Unadoptable Orphan: An orphan who hasn't been adopted, for whatever reason.
- Un-Adopted: An orphan gets adopted, but is later returned.
- Wicked Stepmother: A stepmother who's mean to her stepchildren.
- Wild Child: A child who grew up feral.