Use of Hagrid's name

[Eustace_Scrubb]

No: HPFGUIDX 97992

Geoff wrote:
> Actually, this leads me back to something which has puzzled for a 
> long time.
> 
> Why is it that Hagrid's first name is used so little? Even in 
> situations where he is known personally, his first name is often 
> ignored....

Eustace_Scrubb:
Late into this one, I'm afraid, but anyway...

In boys' boarding schools, at least as portrayed in literary terms,
one's last name seems to be used as the familiar.  In Tom Brown's
Schooldays, for example, although the narrator always refers to "Tom,"
the other boys are almost always called by their last name, whether
they're in Tom's class, older or younger, friend or enemy:  "East,"
"Brooke," "Arthur" (whose first name is Geordie, I think).  On the
other hand, servants are called by their first name or some colorful
nickname (Cooey, Thomas).

In more recent history, the same phenomenon was still in evidence in
American boarding high schools with roots in the British public school
tradition as late as the 1970s (I was there).  I don't know what the
general practice is at Eton, Harrow and Rugby these days.  But clearly
Tom Brown is one literary antecedent for Harry Potter.

So around Hogwarts, using Hagrid's first name might put him in the
"servant" category...especially if he was addressed in that way by
Dumbledore or other teachers.  If Tom Riddle called him "Rubeus" when
they were students he may have been saying "You're really not one of
us."  I might expect Malfoy to refer to him as "Rubeus" but he's
probably not brave enough...

Cheers,

Eustace_Scrubb