Magick Chicks 25-10-11 She keeps secrets

[yiraheerai]

I've got a grandma named Melba Try beating that.

[Stonefoot]

I would never trust anyone who took me into her confidence, yet kept calling me by my last name.

That's a private school thing.

Or the military.

Or in Japan. (Actually they use "first" names, but in Japanese names are written or spoken "family-name given-name" - except that when written in English they are written "given-name family-name".)

In general, it varies by culture or sub-culture. It can also be idiosyncratic: When I was in high school there were a couple of people who frequently used last names while the rest of us used first names.

Also, as yiraheerai pointed out, it can be useful when several people have the same first name. (Nicknames are another solution to that. In college I was a member of an organization which included six people who could have been called "Pat" - they all quickly acquired nicknames.)

On the name game that just started, mine is neither particularly common nor uncommon: Ken (for Kenneth). It has a fairly unusual problem: It sounds quite similar to "can", so in elementary school when I wasn't paying attention and the teacher used the word "can" I would momentarily think I was being called on. I mentioned this to a friend once and she said she had had the same problem, only worse. She was obviously right, her name is Anne!

[Radbaron]

You try finding someone with the first name Bridgette. I've run into it once so far.

Meet my Aunt Bridge (Drudge) and my Aunt Bridgette.

We call the first one by that name so we know who we are talking about.

[Adamas]

You try finding someone with the first name Bridgette. I've run into it once so far.

Well I did have dinner with Brigid once...

[IS_Wolf]

Or in Japan. (Actually they use "first" names, but in Japanese names are written or spoken "family-name given-name" - except that when written in English they are written "given-name family-name".)

Small addendum, using the last name is more customary. It's the whole respect issue that's so firmly interwoven into Japanese speech.

Using the first name of a person indicates that the speaker is very close to said person. If combined with San/Kun/Chan than it can be an indication that the Speaker is a childhood friend. If, however no honorific is used at all, that tends to be a sign that it's an issue of boyfriend/girlfriend/lovers/husband/wife.

[Stonefoot]

If you had written "family name" for "last name" and "given name" for "first name" I would agree with you. The problem is that in spoken Japanese or when it is written in kanji or kana the family name comes first. Only when written in romaji (the characters we're using here) is the given name written first. As an example, here is the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Hayao Miyazaki:

Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿, Miyazaki Hayao, born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films.

You can see that the kanji for Miyazaki (宮崎) are written before the kanji for Hayao (駿).

[The Nick]

Amongst my group of friends, there are about nine people who share the name "Dave" or "Steve," so we've gotten to using last names.

Now we have duplicate last names, so ridiculous imaginary nicknames are being used.

You try finding someone with the first name Bridgette. I've run into it once so far.

I never met a Bridgette, but somebody dropped a bridge on me once...

[IS_Wolf]

If you had written "family name" for "last name" and "given name" for "first name" I would agree with you. The problem is that in spoken Japanese or when it is written in kanji or kana the family name comes first. Only when written in romaji (the characters we're using here) is the given name written first. As an example, here is the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on Hayao Miyazaki:

Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿, Miyazaki Hayao, born January 5, 1941) is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films.

You can see that the kanji for Miyazaki (宮崎) are written before the kanji for Hayao (駿).

Egh.. I am talking about it from our Western perspective with first and last name.

So while we'd say Rei Ayanami, whereas they'd say Ayanami Rei.

That still doesn't change the fact that her other classmates would call her Ayanami-San. Because they're not at all close to her.
Whereas Misato Katsuragi could get away with calling her Rei or Rei-Chan, because she acts as a surrogate Guardian to the pilots, and is her superior to boot in rank.

That was one thing I'd forgotten to mention before. Parents/Guardians talking about or to their kids will also use, what we Westerns call the first name.
So Gendo can easily call Shinji, Shinji. Whereas Ritsuko Akagi would call him either Shinji-kun or Ikari-kun, bit dependent upon the exact role she'd be playing at that moment, whether it be that of his Doctor or as the Chief Scientist of the E-Project, although there is some overlap between the two functions.

---------------
Oh and The Nick.

You mean like this?
Link, perfectly safe for work

[Thor]

Unsurprisingly, I have only run into one other person with my name.

[Don Alexander]

And he was blond, blue-eyed, arrogant and carried a hammer?

@IS_Wolf: Thank you for this object lesson using NGE. Also, did she kill and stuff pedobear?

Sooooo... Where in the world is "Crystal" a common first name??

You can guess mine. It's not hard. It's Don.

[Azrael]

You try finding someone with the first name Bridgette. I've run into it once so far.

I went to school with one.


@Alex: Crystal is somewhat common in the U. S.

[IS_Wolf]

Also, did she kill and stuff pedobear?

Maybe he did...
What you think that Dillon is the only convincing cross dresser?

[Stonefoot]

@IS_Wolf: Yes. What you said. (about names)

@Thor: Did you know that actress Thora Birch's parents were expecting a boy and had chosen the name Thor? When they got a girl, they just tacked on an "a" to make a feminine version of Thor.

....
You can guess mine. It's not hard. It's Don.

True, technically, since it's not hard - it's impossible. I can't guess what I already know.

[Artemisia]

You try finding someone with the first name Bridgette. I've run into it once so far.

I went to school with one.


@Alex: Crystal is somewhat common in the U. S.

Ironically, I did not go to school with anyone with either my current first name or my old first name.

[theodoric476]

I knew some one who had my first name, my father.