# Do you know anyone personally that refers to themselves in the third person? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 9, 2026, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943 "2026-09-09T23:54:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/41 "2026-09-11T04:10:04Z")
[Homey don’t play that.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QhuBIkPXn0) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/42 "2026-09-11T04:15:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Not all people who refer to themselves in the third person are narcissists. But narcissists who do so as a function of their narcissism Again, I ask you to read my cites, which say otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/43 "2026-09-11T11:24:46Z")
Referring to oneself by name is actually quite common in Japanese. It used to be that it was only done by girls and but now some boys are doing it as well. Most adults grow out of it, but some women will continue with friends and family. My ex wife used that with me and her family. Mothers and fathers often refer to themselves as “mother” and “father” (usually ママ mama or パパ papa). Some teachers will call themselves “teacher”’ while teaching, but they don’t when talking to others. It would sound strange outside of these circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/44 "2026-09-11T19:15:55Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > Referring to oneself by name is actually quite common in Japanese. It used to be that it was only done by girls and but now some boys are doing it as well. I did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/45 "2026-09-11T19:19:40Z")
There are people in my workplace who refer to themselves as the name of their department to make themselves sound bigger. “The subject matter experts in Procurement require better documentation about handling exceptions” come on, Carol, we know this has been your hobby-horse for 8 years now, nobody else cares. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2026, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/46 "2026-09-11T19:38:10Z")
That’s verging on the editorial “we” (or maybe, in this case, the royal “we”). I talk like this to my cats. “Where’s daddy? What’s daddy doing? Oh, daddy has stubbed his toe again! Poor daddy!” ---
**Author:** ![your-dowry-in-blood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/your-dowry-in-blood/32/21790_2.png) [@your-dowry-in-blood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/your-dowry-in-blood)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/47 "2026-09-12T03:58:40Z")
I use it sometimes when talking to myself, but I’ve never known anyone to do it in actual conversation. I guess I always assumed it was, at least in English, a quirk belonging entirely to the realm of fiction. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/48 "2026-09-12T08:39:03Z")
I have a couple friends who do it, and I picked it up. It’s why “it” is one of my accepted pronouns. I don’t do it here as I know it would be annoying to most of you. Also do a lot of pronoun dropping, where I just use a verb and people get it. That does show up occasionally here. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/49 "2026-09-12T08:58:24Z")
‘Chris Hoy thinks that the day Chris Hoy refers to Chris Hoy in the third person is the day that Chris Hoy disappears up his own arse.’ > **[Olympics: Cycling - Success will not change humble Chris Hoy](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2008/aug/24/olympics2008.chrishoy)** > > It is difficult to imagine a more deserving recipient of success than Chris Hoy, cycling's triple gold medallist, writes Richard Moore ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/50 "2026-09-12T18:53:39Z")
I’ve got a friend who we still refer to most of the time by his college nickname. He usually refers to himself in the first person, but whenever he’s got something he thinks is dramatic or insightful to say (which is pretty frequent), he’ll drop into 3rd person. And his nickname is such that we & he use “The” as part of it 50% of the time - so if he’s telling you about a recent breakup, he’ll say something like “You know, it’s very challenging to date the Blum” ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943/51 "2026-09-14T01:33:07Z")
Since I don’t follow cycling, I didn’t know who Chris Hoy was but after googling him, it’s hard not to be impressed. He deserves the third person even if he doesn’t want to use it. Sadly, he was also diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in 2024 and given 2-4 years to live. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-anyone-personally-that-refers-to-themselves-in-the-third-person/1032943.md?page=2)