I reject the power semantic and how you address me is how I’ll address you. I was taught to refer to people as Miss, Mrs., Mr, Lastname until they instructed me otherwise but as an adult now, I feel perfectly free to make my own rule which is that we shall converse on equal terms or not at all.
Teachers and other authority figures in school are Mr. or Ms. Lastname (including me, in my role as Girl Scout leader).
Daycare teachers are Ms. Firstname.
Friends and their family members are generally first names unless the adults express a preference for last names.
Family members are referred to as Uncle Firstname, Aunt Firstname, or Grandma/Grandpa, except that the Uncle or Aunt title often gets dropped in direct conversation. Cousins are first names. A couple of unrelated friends have an honorary “Uncle” title.
Not I. I’m a southern boy and that’s what we do. I’m Uncle Clothahump to all my friends’ kids.
No kids, but I’m 23 and was taught to call non-related adults Mr./Ms. Surname. I think I would have found the idea of calling an adult by their first name shocking. Uncle/Aunt was reserved for actual relatives who fit those roles only.
I’m a student in a clinical program that works with kids and they are taught to call us Miss Firstname. Students and clinical supervisors are referred to in the same way, and the supervisors and parents correct kids who call us by first names only.
I keep thinking what would those people do upon ecountering an Iturriagagoitía or a Sáenz de Tejada… maybe that’s the reason we didn’t do that even when my parents were little, we have some serious mouthfuls for lastnames.
My sweetie’s sons…and therefore mine by marriage, hehe, if only part-time…call me by my name, because I prefer it. They already have a confusing situation with 2+dads <multiple marriages> and they call them all Dad. They made me lovely mother’s day cards, and I love them to death, but I’d like them to be solid with just one mom, since that’s at least a little bit of stability. 
What’s going to happen when they have friends over, and what the friends will call me, I don’t know…“Mrs Salgado” will be fine, even though I didn’t trade my last name for his when we married. (I took it as my middle name, but that’s too confusing for adults to understand, apparantly, so I’m not going to try to explain it to 10-year olds)
Something to think about! But Mrs. Salgado will suit me fine. Thanks for making me think about this before it comes up. 
However…ETA…there is a lovely cultural thing in the south that I picked up when I lived in Virginia, calling people Miss <Firstname>, which lends a slight air of formality without going overboard. I think I like that.
We usually shorten them, or go for the Mr/Mrs/Ms. first name. So, something like Mr. Wojciechowski might be “Mr. Wojo” or even “Mr. W” much in the same way Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski becomes “Coach K.” Honorifics were standard issue when I grew up (I’m 35) in Chicago, in both languages I grew up with (English and Polish). I personally still find it odd to address the parents of my friends by their first name and continue calling them Mr. and Mrs. last name.
Me too! There are a few of my parents’ friends who have said, “You know, you’re old enough to call me Firstname now,” and it always feels so weird!
One of my teachers sent all the students a nice graduation note, with a wonderful bit about how we’re going to be great nurses and don’t despair, all recent nursing grads feel a bit hopeless but we’re all doing just fine. She ended it with, “…and now that we’re nursing colleagues, please call me Polly.” It literally brought me to tears. It was a clear signal that, to her at least, I’m a *nurse *now. Wow. Names are powerful things, apparently.
But as moved as I was by her gesture, she’ll always be Mrs. Lastname to me! 
I’m 41 and from the south. We always did the Mr/Misruz First Name if it was someone close. Super-close, like my mom’s best friend, was Aunt First Name. There were some who went by Title Last Name, like the preacher or elders.
I never even thought to do it. When my oldest was little she called my best friend Aunt FN because my friend had her kid’s use that title for me. I generally taught her to call adults by their title/last name unless we’re close, then just first name will do.
We’ve raised our kids to call adults what they ask to be called. Most of our friends have asked the children to call them by their first names. This might be a cultural thing; here in Troll Country, pupils call teachers by their first names, too.
In Maryland all children call adults Mr. firstname or Miss firstname. I don’t consider Maryland to be southern apart from some of the Eastern shore or very southern counties, certainly Baltimore and suburban Washington parts of Maryland seem Northern to me but I guess that tradition has held for generations.
Huh, I’ll have to ask my (local) husband about this. I didn’t grow up that way and it’d never occur to me to teach my kid such an archaic usage. I can’t even remember the last time I used a title outside of the most formal of work settings. It seems strange to me to make kids do it when that’s not how people operate in the real world.
People certainly do use titles in the real world, at least until asked to shift less formal. The “most formal of work settings” is among the most important of “real world” applications of dealing-with-people skills.
You don’t call the client who’s paying for your work, who you just met, by his first name. You don’t call the official whose approval you need on a variance by hers. You don’t call the supplier whose botched delivery you’re complaining about, who you’re on the phone with directly for the first time, by his. These people don’t know you, you don’t know them, and it is essential that they take you seriously.
My children address adults as Mr/Mrs [Lastname]. Most of our neighbors have gotten the hint, and their kids address us as Mr and Mrs Magill, which I greatly prefer. Mr Tim sounds stupid.
Maybe in the 1950s. This does not describe any reality I’ve experienced.
Really? You would, unbidden, address an adult you’ve never met, in a professional context, by their first name? Exactly what line of work are you in?
The default option in our house is that our three sons should refer to other adults with due respect as Mr., Mrs., Ms. etc. unless the adult insists on being called by first name. Then they can do that.
Usually firstname lastname, followed by firstname thereafter.
I used to be a lab chemist. Lately I’ve been doing some work for a giant consulting firm.
A coworker and I occasionally address each other as Dr. Lastname when we’re fooling around, but that’s about it.
My world is more like peremensoe’s. Even the tech who collects my urine sample addresses me by Ms. Red. Anytime that I’m dealing with someone for the first time, I use the title as a courtesy. If the person requests something else, we go with that.
I am 47, I used Mr./Mrs. when growing up if I addressed an adult. My children take the lead of the adult. If they are introduced James Smith, they know to call the adult Mr. Smith. If the adult is introduced as James or says to call him James, they do so. I prefer the children in my life to use my first name and introduce myself accordingly. I do not even expect my nieces and nephews to use Aunt.