# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Damfino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Damfino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damfino)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/61 "2010-06-28T21:32:08Z")
In primary school in the UK in late 60s /early 70s we’d call ourselves by our first names. In secondary/grammar schools we knew each other by our last names, apart from our earlier friends. I was friends with a Potter, by the way. I’d like to reference Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, two intimate Victorian friends who referred to each other by their surnames throughout. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/62 "2010-06-28T21:42:10Z")
In my high school and college in Switzerland, we all called each other by our last names. You’re right, Damfino, Watson and Holmes did that too! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/63 "2010-06-29T00:36:37Z")
So did Mulder and Scully. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/64 "2010-06-29T00:58:09Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > …I am rarely called Gagundathar and more likely called Inexplicable (or rarely, Dr. Inexplicable). Superhero name! ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/65 "2010-06-29T01:08:32Z")
As a baby boomer in Catholic schools in the 50’s and 60’s, the number of girls named Mary was astounding (and the number of boys named Joe and James wasn’t far behind.) Pretty much everyone had to call everyone else by their surname or else we’d spend the entire day adding, “no, not that one, the other one.” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/66 "2010-06-29T16:59:35Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > \ > I call my son-in-law by a nickname I’ve given him: Dipstick. (Which, by the way is not to disrespect his honorable service to our country. It’s just that he is, well, a Dipstick.) Are you Red Foreman? This has me wondering, now. I didn’t notice people calling each other by surnames when I was in school, but I was a girl. Well, I still am. A woman, that is. I was a girl. ANYway, I’ve noticed my husband does do this with his guy friends, though. ---
**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 29, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/67 "2010-06-29T17:12:58Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Are you Red Foreman? > > This has me wondering, now. I didn’t notice people calling each other by surnames when I was in school, but I was a girl. Well, I still am. A woman, that is. I was a girl. ANYway, I’ve noticed my husband does do this with his guy friends, though. I call almost all my genuine friends, male & female, by their last names (the exceptions being a pair of married couples with whom that would be pointlessly ambiguous). I don’t care for the current fashion of being on a first name basis with everyone & vice versa, so I deliberately subvert it. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/68 "2010-06-29T17:54:31Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > So did Mulder and Scully. 🙂 And the entire cast of _House_. And _Barney Miller_ (except Barney himself). And the cops in _Cagney and Lacey_ (except the two women between themselves). ---
**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 29, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/69 "2010-06-29T20:00:59Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > …If you ever saw _To Sir With Love_, note that Sidney Portier called his male students by their last names, and the female ones “Miss (Whatever)”;… Come to think of it that old social studies teacher did often omit the “Master” and call us boys by our surname, but he always put a “Miss” in front of a girl’s name. Perhaps at some point the later years of his career he was told to stop addressing boys & girls differently and just slipped back into hold habits? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/70 "2010-06-29T20:06:26Z")
Most schools don’t like the teachers to hold the students. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/71 "2010-06-29T20:31:47Z")
> [@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. > [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > At Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento in the early 80s, calling one another by last name wasn’t an unusual thing. At Christian Brothers High School in El Paso in the late 80s, calling one another by last name wasn’t an unusual thing. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/72 "2010-06-29T22:46:54Z")
Another vote for - common even in the US. Both my SO and I have very common first names, especially for people close to our age. In elementary school, my 2 best friends had the same name as me, and we all lived within 2 blocks of each other. High school - 3 of us. College dorms - 3 of us. Heck there were 3 of us when I started at this job. Even today, there are several shared first names among our group of friends, and those people are often called by their last names. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/73 "2010-06-30T03:30:01Z")
> [@seanchai](#): > > My son went to grade school with 6 Jasons. For some reason they were all Jason S or > Jason Y or whatever. Apparently their teacher instituted this, for sanity reasons. The only kids I knew who called each other by last names were the several Jasons in my year. And only they and their friends did this, everyone else called them Jason. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691/74 "2010-06-30T03:55:56Z")
American, went to high school in the '90s, in two different areas. _No one_ at either of my schools went by their last names, and when I saw high schoolers on TV do it I’d roll my eyes and think it was some weird, anachronistic California thing. So I was quite surprised when I overheard my younger brother start referring to his friends by their last names when he went to high school (in a third area). I assumed it was just a regional thing, but it seems in this thread to have been quite widespread. Don’t know how I missed it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-kids-really-call-each-other-by-their-last-name-like-in-harry-potter/544691.md?page=3)