Don't Tell Him Your Name, Pike!

[Moonraker]

“Evil” is more apt for someone like my old adversary Block who used my tower to do his signalling (my avatar is a grim testimony to his nefariousness).

Lenoir's post on the MT thread led me to wonder what Mr Lenoir's Christian, or first name, might have been. I don't think it was ever mentioned. He obviously had French ancestory by his surname and the fact that his son was Christened Pierre.

It was the norm for men (and boys, for that matter) to address each other by surname. Block and Barling were never given a first name in the book. I always remember being sent off the rugby field (silver lining, eh?) for laughing when the Games Master shouted to a boy, "Come here, Darling!"

We have a neighbour with the surname of Black. I often wonder if he realises why we refer to the family as the Lenoirs!

[Lucky Star]

I thought you had started a Dads Army thread there for a minute Nigel. It was also common in the 70's to be called by surname at school. I always was and so were all the other boys. Mine was a mixed school however and, while for boys we used surnames, for girls we used christian names. One of those oddities I suppose.

Blyton frequently only supplies one name or the other for characters in her books. For example in the following Five book Five go off in a Caravan Lou and Tiger Dan are not given surnames while, as you say, Mr lenoir gets no first name. Perhaps this is supposed to indicate that we should have some respect for Mr Lenoir as a gentleman while the other pair are merely a couple of disreputable crooks?

[Moonraker]

Could well be, John! It always seemed strange to me that men used surnames to address their personal friends - Holmes and Watson, Poirot and Hastings, for example.

[Lucky Star]

I seem to remember that in some of Charles Dickens works the men address each other by surname also - if they are equals!! Addressing someone by their christian name, at least in those days, would appear to have been a slightly condescending thing to do. At any rate the custom does seem to have largely died out now apart from possibly the major schools like Eton etc.

[Philip Mannering]

I never understood all those calling by surnames. Why not call them by their first names? There ought to have been a reason. Enid's books too - in House-at-the-Corner the boys at Tony Farrell's school call each other by their surnames. Why?

[Philip Mannering]

“Evil” is more apt for someone like my old adversary Block who used my tower to do his signalling (my avatar is a grim testimony to his nefariousness).

Lenoir's post on the MT thread led me to wonder what Mr Lenoir's Christian, or first name, might have been. I don't think it was ever mentioned. He obviously had French ancestory by his surname and the fact that his son was Christened Pierre.

Personally I've never thought that before, but now I come to think of it, his first name isn't given. But I've never wondered why.

[Yak]

Rowling does the same thing though in her case, the girls are referred to as 'Miss' and then their surname..

[lizarfau]

Our first names were used by teachers at school, but among the kids, many of us went by surname or nickname - girls included.

At my last place of work, we had a colleague who jokingly called us all by our surnames.

My nan and her neighbours all called themselves Mrs So-and-So even though they'd been neighbours for years, which I always thought very peculiar.

[manzanita]

At primary school - for me 1984 -1990 - boys were called by their surnames, although probably after 1988 it was less common.

I remember once calling a boy by his surname and getting hell from a teacher for it. I didn't understand then, and I'm not entirely sure why now!

At secondary school, it was first names. Nicknames were not allowed - if you were a Michelle, you were a Michelle! No Mish, Shelly, Shell allowed!

[Rob Houghton]

This is quite interesting, because it seems to have been different depending on what schools we attended. At primary school (roughly 1975 - 1982) we were called by our first names only, both boys and girls, and at the secondary school I attended between 1982 and 1987 the same thing applied. I always supposed the use of surnames for boys to be something from 'the old days' but now I see that wasn't the case

[Anita Bensoussane]

First names were used in my primary and secondary schools too, for both girls and boys. Like Robert, I hadn't realised that the use of surnames (for boys in particular) had lasted in some schools until relatively recently.

Anita

[Timmy-the-dog]

my last teaching job was in an all-boys school - packed up in 2001. the boys were all addressed by surname except for the sixth formers
cheers
Dog

[Petermax]

At the secondary school I attended from 1977 to 1982, the boys were addressed by surnames and the girls by their christian names. This practice was mostly undertaken by the older members of staff whose teaching careers dated back to the 1940's. What terrors those old warhorses were! The younger, more approachable teachers would address us by our christian names, as did virtually all the female staff.

When it came to addressing each other, we would alternatively use christian names, surnames or nicknames, depending on how well one knew the person being spoken to.

[Rob Houghton]

At the secondary school I attended from 1977 to 1982, the boys were addressed by surnames and the girls by their christian names. This practice was mostly undertaken by the older members of staff whose teaching careers dated back to the 1940's. What terrors those old warhorses were! The younger, more approachable teachers would address us by our christian names, as did virtually all the female staff.

that reminded me that at primary school we did have one older male teacher, who was 'old school' called Mr Martin. He was always very smart (blazer and grey trousers, old school tie type of thing) and very strict. Everyone was scared of him, and i believe he used to call boys by their surnames (though I was never actually in his class). He was the one who used to dole out the punishments and give children the ruler during playtime in the school hall, while everyone else was out playing.

[Philip Mannering]

Gosh, sounds a very strict teacher, Robert! I'm glad I, to date anyway, never had those type of teachers. I mentioned before that there is one teacher who uses the ruler for the bad ones, glad I never had any of that. Also I'm glad that I'm not in his class.