I watched the movie Amadeus today. The main character, Antonio Salieri, goes by “Salieri,” even with his friends. The only person who calls Mozart by his first name is his wife. Everyone else calls him “Mozart” or “Herr Mozart.” Of course, this is a period piece, so it’s hard to generalize from that…
But then again, there’s Futurama, in which everyone calls the main character “Fry.” Even his close friends, girlfriends, etc… And his full name is “Phillip J. Fry.” Of course, that is a sort of a period piece too.
But then we get to the item that really prompts my question. I was watching a rerun of House the other day, and Cameron introduced herself to someone as, I believe, “Allison Cameron.”
…What?! You mean Cameron is her last name? But no one calls her “Allison!” Even when she was sleeping with another main character, he kept calling her “Cameron.”
Question: Do you (or anyone you know) go by your (their) last name? I don’t mean “Dr. Seltzer” or “Sergeant Seltzer” or “Rabbi Seltzer.” No. I mean just “Seltzer.” Do people really do this after they leave high school gym class?
I’m in the military, we almost all call eachother exclusively by our last names (for superiors, you’d add their rank beforehand, of course, since you’re not their buddy, sipping 40’s on the corner back in the hood…) Some folks get picky about it and insist on being called by their first name, especially when off duty, but usually we seem to go by whatever is written on our shirts.
My ex-wife used to affectionately call me by my (our) last name. No mister or anything, just the last name. Sometimes she’d shorten to just one syllable, the first.
I’ve never known anyone else to do this.
Peace,
mangeorge
My mentor’s husband’s name is Ed but everyone calls him by his last name. His last name sounds like a first name, like “Neil” so it works.
One of my parents’ closest friends is my “Uncle” George. Turns out that his real name is Carl, but being a military guy everyone calls him by his last name, even his wife. He’s always been “George” to his friends after HS when he joined the military.
A lot of my male college friends I call by last name only. In fact, it feels weird calling them by their first names. Especially my buddy from rural South Texas. I can’t call him by his first name without feeling like I’ve violated some man law. They, of course, do the same to me.
Don’t have any female friends that went by their last names, though that would help with the fifty million Jennifers I know.
My Mom called my Dad by our last name a lot. It wasn’t an excluisve thing, but it was always “normal.”
My friends and I also always used to call each other by our last names. In fact, sometimes people we didn’t talk to much would be pulled into the conversation and stop and ask me what my first name was because no one called me by it (and they were uncomfortable with the last name thing).
I get called by my last name a lot. I have a common first name. My last name, if you drop the final S is also a common boys name. But if people use my last name, it’s always the full version and not the demunitive.
I was going to mention the military aspect, having done my time in uniform. Related to that, but only tangentially related to the OP, I’ve met way too many pilots who use their callsigns in real life. :rolleyes: Yeah, Maverick and IceMan, I’m really impressed because you’re macho aviators. Heck, I’ve got a friend whose been retired for at least 10 years, and he still introduces himself by his callsign. Then again, if your identity is tied to your (former) career…
If I’m ragging on my husband, I’ll call him by his last name: “Way to go, West!” Come to think if it, I’ve said that to myself when I’ve done something particularly inane. But it’s never common usage - more like a snarky aside.
I know several people that go by just their last name or shortened versions of them.
I had a boyfriend when I was a teenager who went by Pete but his given name was George. I also had another one who went by the shortened version of his middle name.
An old, old friend of my sister’s has a three-syllable Polish surname – she, her husband, and I all call him by the first syllable of that name (and have done so for 40 years or more). No one else does, oddly enough.
I’ve been referred to by my last name, Mahoney for most of my life by lots of the people that I know. It’s just natural or people like to say it or something. Even my girlfriend does it sometimes. I guess I’m just one of those last name type folks.
Some last names seem to automatically become a first name. I know several Carpenters, and every one is Carp or Carpy. A Smith or a Jones has to struggle if he doesn’t want to be Smitty or Jonesy. I worked with a Rudy for years before I found out that was his last name. :smack: I don’t like calling anybody by his last name, unless I don’t like him.
I’ve been called Nott since high school. It was either that, or my inherited nickname, Sheriff.
Some names have automatic nicknames. A kid named Rhodes becomes Dusty or Rocky through no fault of his own. Nobody remembers the cowboy actor anymore, so Gibson kids don’t have to be Hoot. I wonder if the Hogan children are pressed into ripping their t-shirts or faking an Australian accent. There’s a Robert England around here who cannot escape being called Freddy Krueger. Poor guy.
Everyone–including me–calls my husband by the first syllable of his last name. His given name is James, and even rereading that it seems odd. He’s not at all a James.
Teaching is another last name profession: I get called Ms. Lastname more often than the average person, and in more familiar situations my students will just call me “Lastname”, or a shortened version of it (dropping the first sound) both of which I like. I do NOT like the Ms. “A” (or other first initial thing) some teachers do. I don’t know why. After they graduate, I stay some form of lastname to the kids. When talking about me, they often say “The [form of last name]”, which is kinda cute. Among my co-workers, we switch between first name, last name, and Ms/Mr. Lastname pretty interchangeably.
