In the pages of Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin's parents were never given names throughout the entire run of the iconic comic strip. The choice to keep them nameless was very intentional by creator Bill Watterson, who revealed that he opted not to name the characters for a specific reason: they are only important as Calvin's parents and not as characters that needed to be fully fleshed out.
In The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson, the legendary cartoonist discussed many topics regarding his classic comic strip starring the youngster and his stuffed tiger. He revealed the reason why Calvin's parents were never given names in the series. Watterson wrote, "As far as the strip is concerned, they are important only as Calvin's mom and dad." As such, he felt he never needed to identify them by name, as they solely served Calvin and Hobbes' adventures, and it wasn't ultimately vital what he called them.
The Parents In Calvin and Hobbes Were Intentionally Exasperated.
According to Bill Watterson, he received fan complaints that Calvin's parents in Calvin and Hobbes were "unloving" and "needlessly" sarcastic, but said it was the best way to show how exasperated his parents were by being intentionally unsentimental - as raising kids was difficult. Additionally, Watterson did admit that there's some truth to Calvin's mom and dad being partially based on his own parents but that they were satirical takes of them more than actual reflections. He added that since the parents are mostly only seen reacting as secondary characters to Calvin and his adventures, he wanted to keep them realistic - albeit with their own personalities and humor.
While Bill Watterson reasoned that Calvin's parents in Calvin and Hobbes didn't need names, he did draw inspiration for other characters in the comic strip. For example, Calvin was famously named after real-life 16th-century theologian John Calvin, while Hobbes is named after the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Meanwhile, Calvin's elementary teacher, Miss Wormwood, was named after the devil in C.S. Lewis' The Screw Tape Letters. So, Watterson did draw on the real world and classic literature for some characters' names, just not for Calvin's parents.
Ultimately, Bill Watterson's reason for not giving Calvin's parents names made sense. He didn't want to draw attention away from Calvin and Hobbes and believed keeping them nameless was appropriate, considering their secondary roles in the comic strip. In the end, it's hard to imagine a Calvin and Hobbes story where his parents did have names as it became a noteworthy part of the newspaper's comic history.