Using first names to refer to characters in novels

Dragonwriter said:

In my series, I vary it by the way the character is perceived. Characters in more of an authority position are referred to by their last name, and younger or less powerful characters by their first. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but for example, my MC (a professor and a mage) is always called by his last name in the narrative, as is his friend/rival, another powerful mage. But his apprentice (late teens) and her brother (mid 20s) are both called by their first name.

I see it sort of like in Harry Potter, where we had Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but Snape, Dumbledore and Lupin.

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Draco refers to the Golden Trio as Potter, Weasley and Granger.

and the teachers are teachers. I think it's a british thing to refer to others by their last names unless you know them as friends. Lupin referred to Snape as Severus while he taught (I think it's been a long time since I read the books, and it may be fan fic is giving me that idea) while Snape always called Remus by his last name.

But that goes for the rest of the characters too. It's mostly last names unless Harry knows them very well and he conceders them friends. I think that the only teacher who doesn't have a last name used is the centaur.

And while we're on that, lets talk LOTR as well.

Out of everyone it seems like the Hobbits have last names. Everyone else is referred to by their first names or their pen name. Like no one knows Strider is really Aragorn and what have you. I think out of fear of Gandalf a Mister is thrown in. Or respect, like Sam always says Mister Frodo. So he's kinda mixing it up. He's friend with Frodo but Frodo is still his boss and so he shows that respect by saying Frodo. And not because Frodo is older than him or anything.

Thats what some teach kids to do these days, if there's someone older they're taught to say Miss or Mister and then that person's first name just out of respect that they're younger. At least, that's what my mom did with us and it seems to be a Southern thing. I've since stopped doing that but it was kind of awkward when people gave me weird looks at my job. *shrugs*

But yeah. There's a lot of stuff you can do with this to show characterization.

briannasealock said:

Draco refers to the Golden Trio as Potter, Weasley and Granger.

and the teachers are teachers. I think it's a british thing to refer to others by their last names unless you know them as friends. Lupin referred to Snape as Severus while he taught (I think it's been a long time since I read the books, and it may be fan fic is giving me that idea) while Snape always called Remus by his last name.

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It's not a universal British thing. It's a custom that's dying out, but it's dying out slowest in institutions like the armed forces and in upper-class boys' schools.

You said Draco, but the books usually call him Malfoy, at least when his father isn't around. His friends Crabbe and Goyle are known by their surnames too. The pattern here is that the Slytherin kids go by their surnames, and the students in other houses don't. Snape and Lupin follow the same pattern, except that Harry and friends use Lupin's surname because he's a teacher.

(The Slytherin girls break the pattern. They tend to be called by their full names. I think this is because girls' boarding school books don't call girls by their surnames, so the author thought it would be weird to do so. We never get to know any Slytherin girls very well anyway.)

This is part of a general strategy of portraying Slytherins as more upper-class, more formal, and less friendly than the rest of the wizarding world. Another aspect is that you'd never catch a Slytherin calling Voldemort "You-Know-Who" - even those with absolutely no Death Eater sympathies go for the more formal "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named". Again and again in Rowling's writing you see her disdain for the sort of people who get sent to expensive schools, stroll into high-powered jobs thanks to the old boys' network, and end up running the country without much understanding of how the 99% live. She uses traits from that sector of society to show how Slytherins occupy the same niche in the wizarding world.

Selcaby said:

You said Draco, but the books usually call him Malfoy, at least when his father isn't around. His friends Crabbe and Goyle are known by their surnames too. The pattern here is that the Slytherin kids go by their surnames, and the students in other houses don't. Snape and Lupin follow the same pattern, except that Harry and friends use Lupin's surname because he's a teacher.

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Good point--it seems like Rowling calls the "good guy" kids by their first names for the most part (Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Percy, Fred, George, Cedric, etc.) and the "bad guy" kids by their last (Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini, etc.) Almost all the teachers except Hagrid (who's basically a big kid) are called by their last names in the narrative. Interesting point about the "bad guy" girls (Millicent Bulstrode, Pansy Parkinson). Even the "good" female or ambiguously-gendered teachers are often prefaced with "Professor," with the exception of McGonagall (Professor Sinestra, Professor Vector, Professor Trelawney, Professor Sprout) but you often see the males, both good and bad, with just last names (Dumbledore, Lupin, Snape, etc.)

Just to clarify what I meant in my previous post--I'm just talking about the way the author refers to the characters in the narrative, not the way the other characters do.

Dragonwriter said:

Almost all the teachers except Hagrid (who's basically a big kid) are called by their last names in the narrative.

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Hagrid is a surname, too.

Selcaby said:

Hagrid is a surname, too.

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Oh, of course it is. Oops!

byron100 said:

Just posing a question to the seasoned veterans of this board.

In several novels I've been reading this week, the authors uses the surname to refer to the characters, except in actual dialogue when the first name is used (and even then they still use last names a lot...gaa.)

In other novels, of course, the first name of each character is referenced within the narrative and dialogue tags, as is the case in my own novel I'm due to release soon.

As a reader, which do you prefer? Is the "formal" practice of referring to characters by their last names on the downswing, or will it be a mainstay of contemporary fiction for the foreseeable future? Myself, I'd much rather authors dispense with last names after immediate introduction - it's especially helpeful in terms of gender, and it just makes for smoother, more "friendly" reading overall.

What are your opinions (as readers and writers both) on this matter?

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If I flip open a book and see surnames, I'd instantly assume it's espionage. Can't really say why...I guess it's just more common in that genre? I've only read a handful of espionage, so it's not a genre I'm well acquainted with.