Rosmerta - First or Last name

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 128622

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, rayheuer3 at a... wrote:

Sherrie:
> 
> >I don'r have PoA to hand, but doesn't Fudge refer  to her as 
just "Rosmerta" 
>  
> >in the scene at the Three  Broomsticks?  If it's her last name, 
I'd  think 
> that 
> >would be  INEXCUSABLY rude of him.

Ray:
>   Not in Britain, where one will frequently call an acquaintance  
(including, 
> presumably a female acquaintance) by their last name.  You will  
notice 
> several occassions of characters being addressed as "Potter" 
or  "Malfoy".  
> However, Fudge actually calls her, "Rosmerta, m'dear" indicating  a 
certain level of 
> intimacy.  Hagrid also calls her Rosmerta, so I have to  assume 
that it is, 
> indeed, her first name.

Geoff:
Your comment led me led to wonder in which part of the UK you live.

I would never call a female acquaintance by her last name only 
without the prefix "Mrs." or "Miss" and I have never heard any other 
adult do likewise. You will occasionally hear teenagers call others 
by last names but even that is much less common than it was in years 
past.

When I first started teaching in a single-sex school, it was 
customary to call the boys by their last names but that fell out of 
use when we went co-educational. I might jokingly call a man "Jonesy" 
or "Smithy" but otherwise, most informal contact would involve using 
their first name.