# Do British kids really call each other by their last name like in Harry Potter **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 27, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691 "2010-06-27T17:28:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/1 "2010-06-27T17:28:30Z")
they’re so silly ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/2 "2010-06-27T17:31:10Z")
In San Diego when I was in jr. high, and in L.A. County when I was in high school, it was not uncommon for us to call each other by our last names – especially in high school. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/3 "2010-06-27T17:34:51Z")
I attended high school in England and, yes, the practice was common. Also, every kid had an insulting nickname, known as a piss-up, and that seemed the most common form of address. For example, I was called “bigfoot” or Yank more than by my real name. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/4 "2010-06-27T17:39:18Z")
I remember this as being pretty common for American kids in my day too. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/5 "2010-06-27T17:40:57Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I remember this as being pretty common for American kids in my day too. Yep. 34 here, and very common. Especially when 4 of your circle of friends are all named “Dave.” ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/6 "2010-06-27T17:41:21Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I remember this as being pretty common for American kids in my day too. Ditto for me. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/7 "2010-06-27T17:44:48Z")
When you go to school with eight guys named Dave, hell yeah, you’ll use the surname. Close friends had called me on it, and I said, “One, you’re the fifth guy at this table named Dave, two, your surname is iconic – Strassmore\*, it’s just so you, furthermore, do you really want to be lumped together with David Dinglehous\*, just by coincidence of your parent’s choice of given name?” And everyone agreed. especially the last two reasons. Who in the Harry Potter series uses surname, anyway? What I remember is Harry and Draco. Draco: “Scared? Pot\* spit _ter_ sneer _" Harry: "You wish, Mal_ loughie-sound \*foy” They spit their surnames at each other, in mocking formality, because they’re not close, and because their surnames are funnier. 'Tho if it was my high school, they would have tried to work “palms” into our protagonist’s address somehow. - Not actual names. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/8 "2010-06-27T17:51:32Z")
When I grew up, people were generally called \*either \*by their first name, \*or \*by their last name, \*or \*by their nickname, whichever was most distinctive. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/9 "2010-06-27T17:52:23Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I remember this as being pretty common for American kids in my day too. In my experience, I wouldn’t call it common but certainly not unheard of either. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/10 "2010-06-27T18:00:25Z")
Malfoy calls all the Gryffindors by their surnames. And the Gryffindors the Slytherins. Maybe they only use surnames for their enemies. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/11 "2010-06-27T18:15:05Z")
At Christian Brothers High School in Memphis in the late 80s, calling one another by last name wasn’t an unusual thing. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/12 "2010-06-27T18:55:19Z")
More common in the public (ie private !) schools where teachers also use surnames as a form of address. I don’t know if the practice of denoting members of the same family with - I need to ask my dad to be sure I’m 100% correct - Latin monikers like “family name minimus” rather than “junior”. As a side not the England rugby team seem to follow this with Johnny Wilkinson being “Wilko” and Martin Johnson “Johnno”. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/13 "2010-06-27T19:05:12Z")
This was common in boys’ high schools in New Zealand, but not girls’ high schools. I don’t know about co-ed schools. Just adding to yer data. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/14 "2010-06-27T19:21:42Z")
IME it’s common in public schools (though less so than it used to be), and fairly common among boys in ordinary schools - like others said, it was a practical way of distinguishing between the different Daves, Steves and Pauls - but unusual among girls. > [@BlankSlate](#): > > I attended high school in England and, yes, the practice was common. Also, every kid had an insulting nickname, known as a piss-up, and that seemed the most common form of address. For example, I was called “bigfoot” or Yank more than by my real name. A piss-up? Really? That’s an odd term for them to choose! ---
**Author:** ![Astral\_Rejection](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/258eb7/32.png) [@Astral\_Rejection](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astral_Rejection)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/15 "2010-06-27T19:23:16Z")
Common here in the midwest, particularly if you had a distinctive last name. I was in high school from 2001-2005, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/16 "2010-06-27T19:27:17Z")
Not common, but not unheard of in my days of HS. My daughter (now a sophomore in college) was called by her last name on the field hockey team (even as captain), but not by people who were not hockey players. I don’t see what is so strange or silly about the practice. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/17 "2010-06-27T19:30:28Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > IME it’s common in public schools (though less so than it used to be), and fairly common among boys in ordinary schools - like others said, it was a practical way of distinguishing between the different Daves, Steves and Pauls - but unusual among girls. > > A piss-up? Really? That’s an odd term for them to choose! Piss-take rather than piss-up (piss take = mocking, piss up = getting drunk) From my school in the UK we generally called each other by surname or some variation of you surname except for close friends where it would be first name or nickname. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/18 "2010-06-27T19:35:12Z")
The only teachers who called students by their last names in my HS where the gym teachers. And one old social studies teacher who’d insist addressing us as _Miss_ or _Master_ Lastname. Oh and our French teacher briefly resolved to call her French IV students _Monsieur ou Mademoiselle X_ and using vous citing French custom with lycee students, but after a fortnight she went back to using tu and calling us by our pretend first names. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/19 "2010-06-27T19:48:44Z")
It is not unusual in America for the boys to be referred to by last name. As an aside, I give you _That '70s Show_ where the characters refer to the males by last name. Except maybe Fez. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/20 "2010-06-27T19:53:55Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > At Christian Brothers High School in Memphis in the late 80s, calling one another by last name wasn’t an unusual thing. My doctor friend went there in the 60s with the much hated Cybil Sheppard. I thought it was a girl’s school. Are you really a girl Skald? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691.md?page=2)