"Ahh! Ivan Vaks. How good to see you. Where have you been hiding?"

"I am well and I have not been hiding. It is good to see you Peter Iconovich!"

the characters in dostoyevsky novels do that. i always liked that. did they all do that in fyodor's time? it gives a certain intimacy to every conversation, but at the same time a certain amount of respect.

i would like everyone to call me by my first and last name. i will do the same for anyone in return. for i like them. to get the ball rolling, i will include this new policy in my email sig.

This is possible under existing technology.
-- gnormal, Feb 05 2001

I am StarChaser Fin-tim-lim-bim-lim-bin-bim-bin-bim-bus-stop-f'tang-f'tang-olé-biscuitbarrel Tyger, thanks...
-- StarChaser, Feb 05 2001


centauri. beta centauri.
-- centauri, Feb 05 2001


hell, I approve of it, but I was the one in middle school to insist everyone call me "Knight!" (preferably by bellowing) but in dostoevsky novels, it's not actually their full name -- it's their first name plus their (I think this is the word for it) patronym. Y'know, like it was Alyosha Fyodorovich, Dmitri Fyodorovich, and Ivan Fyodorovich, but they were all the bloody _Brothers Karamazov_, dig? 'Cause their father's name was Fyodor, and it's a bit like O'Hara or MacTavish or Olafson or whatever, but it's a one-generation middle name, not a down-the-lines family name. Yuh.

Cnidarae Robrovich KNIGHT!
-- Cnidarae, Feb 05 2001


Cnidarae Robrovich: Kinda like "Worf, son of Mogh" or "Thorin, son of Thrain." I guess I'd be "centauri, sun of the centauri system."
-- centauri, Feb 06 2001


"PotatoStew, son of Dinty Moore."
-- PotatoStew, Feb 06 2001


I read 'Crime and Punishment' and one of the interesting but confusing aspects was that characters were referred to with different names by different people which sometimes took me a while to realize they were in fact one and the same person. When I first encountered people being called by two names, I thought this was a first and last name, but later discovered upon hearing their family name that this was not the case so assumed it was two given names. (I have only ever been called by my first and middle name alone by my mother, and even then only when she was annoyed at me.) There seem to be quite a few short forms for names too in Russian, perhaps something akin to forms like Bill for William in English which also make it hard to follow characters. Finally, wasn't the main character also called some other name by his friends. All in all it was confusing at times.

Maybe I shouldn't complain so much. In the Tale of Genji, Japanese readers must struggle with characters who are continuously brandishing new sobriquets as the tale progresses.

As for both first and last names being used, or given and family names as I prefer to call them, I am all for it, at least in formal situations. Does anyone else find it difficult to know what to call people sometimes? I mean for a man it's fairly straight forward. If he is Bill Smith, then we can call him Mr. Smith. But what about Jane Smith? Is she a Mrs. Smith, Ms. Smith, Mz. Smith, ...? It would be simpler if we could just call her Jane Smith. "Good Afternoon Jane Smith!" Of course, a single replacement for Mr./Mrs./Ms. would also do the trick here. I like the Japanese gender-irrelevant -san suffix. Smith-san or even Jane-san, since it can be affixed to given names as well, among other things.

Actually, in China everyone calls each other by full name already I am lead to believe. This may perhaps be a more recent trend since titles have gone out of use since the cultural revolution. The order is family name followed by given name however, which is opposite that used here. Actually, I prefer this order (which is used in Korean and Japan too) as it seems to make more sense. After all, in the west when we file a person alphabetically, we do so by last name then first name as in 'Smith, Bill'. I would like to henceforth be called "Risch Derek".
-- Derek Risch, Feb 04 2002


Call me Index thumbwax, as pinky is not my first name - I find a ring to be uncomfortable though my middle finger is ready in case I need to fly in a hurry.
-- thumbwax, Feb 04 2002


Archibald Bloke? Wasn't he Cary Grant?

Derek, my mother, too, used to call me by my full name when I'd done something to annoy her. Perhaps it's a generation thing?

A couple of years ago, we had a Japanese girl working in our office for a few weeks. She had terrible trouble understanding why nobody used their proper name. So, for example, everyone in the office calls me Bob but my siblings call me Rob and my mum always calls me Robert. It's all very confusing, when you stop to think about it.

ps: 'wax, if your ring is uncomfortable you should use softer paper :o)
-- DrBob, Feb 04 2002



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