Last-Name Basis/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples for [[Last-Name Basis]] in [[Literature
* Nymphadora Tonks in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' is a rare female example; she demands that people call her Tonks and not her first name. You can see her point. Her parents call her Dora, and after she gets married, so does her husband. The book doesn't address whether or not she took her husband's last name; Harry/The Narrator still thinks of her as "Tonks."
** Lupin still calls her that too ("Tonks is going to have a baby"), though he also uses "Dora" on occasion.
** Even Malfoy never refers to his two closest friends/lackeys as Vincent and Gregory. For that matter, very few people refer to Malfoy as Draco. Also applies to most students who aren't close friends.
*** In [[Fanfic|fanfiction]], however, Malfoy is pretty much ''always'' referred to as "Draco". Oddly, [[
*** It can get confusing when they refer to both Draco's lackeys and their fathers as Crabbe and Goyle.
*** Draco is also on last name basis with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Though this is related to the mutual distaste.
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** Pansy Parkinson is a weird exception. As the [[Alpha Bitch]], Harry clearly has no liking for her, but the narrator keeps calling Pansy by her first name rather than her last, which is something he does to Malfoy - another character he dislikes. The only known character that calls Pansy by her last name is Hermione. However, Harry never talks to Pansy or mentions her in dialogue, so we don't know how he would refer to her outside his head.
** Insofar as it applies to fellow students at Hogwarts, that's really just a Public School (Americans: read 'private, fee-paying school') thing, probably informed by all those other books set in boarding schools.
** In ''[[
** Usually, "Harry" refers to the character in specific, while "Potter" refers to the franchise as a whole.
* To the very end of the ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' canon, despite being best friends and living through years (even decades) of perilous adventures together, Holmes and Watson still use each other's last names, but this would be absolutely [[Truth in Television]] for Englishmen of their period and class. Only Holmes' brother Mycroft ever uses his first name.
** Interestingly, in the pastiche ''Beekeeper's Apprentice'' series, the main character and the detective refer to each other as 'Russell' and 'Holmes' respectively. Even {{spoiler|after they get married}}.
** [[Subverted]] in the ''[[
* In ''[[Fahrenheit 451]]'', protagonist Guy Montag is referred to solely as Montag in the narrative and more or less everyone else, only addressed as Guy by his wife Mildred and once or twice by his boss Captain Beatty (Clarisse calls him 'Mr Montag').
* In ''[[Amelia Peabody|The Amelia Peabody Mysteries]]'', Amelia and her husband Radcliffe Emerson fondly refer to each other by their last names, in memory of their rather tumultuous courtship.
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[
** Technically, every important character except Bragg has a first name given; it's just that the only characters who are ever referred to by their first names with any frequency are Gaunt, Corbec, and Milo.
* In ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', the character Jay Gatsby is almost always refered to as Gatsby. Although, to be fair, nobody really knows anything about him.
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** And most people call Wes Janson "Wes", anyway.
** An exchange from ''[[Outbound Flight]]''.
{{quote|
'''Car'das''': "You can just call me Car'das. In our culture, the first name is reserved for use by friends."
'''Thrawn''': "You don't consider me a friend?"
'''Car'das''': "Do you consider ''me'' one?" }}
* While [[
* In ''[[
* In the ''[[
** An even better example from the Wizards of Discworld is that of Rincewind, who can't even REMEMBER his first name (if he even had one. his mother left before he was born. Don't ask.) We only find out it's his last name in fact when he meets a distant relative Bill Rincewind, Archchancelor of Bugerup University in XXXX.
* Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs almost always refer to each other by their surnames in the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver. In fact, it's considered bad luck by them to use first names while working a case, which is probably justified because the one time Sachs says "Lincoln" while processing a scene, {{spoiler|the tunnel she's in collapses}}.
* In [[
* In ''[[
** More specifically, the main character Tom usually refers to him as 'The Spook' in the narration, but 'Mr. Gregory' when he's talking to someone. Alice calls him 'Old Gregory'. Almost nobody ever calls him John.
* In ''[[Dresden Files]]'' Harry and Karrin Murphy both do this to each other. Very rarely has Harry ever called her Karrin. She's called him Harry a few times though. Also they never call Butters by his first name, though that might have more to do with it being Waldo...
** 'Gentleman' Johnny Marcone does this to Harry. "Mr. Dresden, I have asked you not to call me that."
* Two examples from the [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]]: in ''The Ancestor Cell'', {{spoiler|a great deal of the plot has to do with an antagonistic alternate version of Fitz Kreiner. The evil alternate version is generally known as Father Kreiner. The Doctor, however, calls him Fitz anyway, and although the first time the Doctor does so, he tells the Doctor, "Don’t call me that. I’m not Fitz," he puts up with it from then on, perhaps symbolic of the fact that, following an [[Enemy Mine]] situation and Kreiner's having aired out [[Love Makes You Crazy|his grievances with the Doctor]], they slip back into [[Heterosexual Life Partners|their old relationship]].}} Also, in ''The Gallifrey Chronicles'', Anji Kapoor's [[Strangled
{{quote|
* [[Lampshaded]] by C.S. Lewis in ''[[The Silver Chair]]'', when 1940s British schoolmates Jill Pole and Eustace Scrubb call one another by their first names near the end of their adventure, after spending almost the entire book on a last name basis. "One didn't do it at school," Lewis notes.
* In the [[Vorkosigan Saga]], Ludmilla Droushnakavoi hates her first name, and prefers to answer to a contraction of her surname, Drou (or Droushie to a four year old Emperor Gregor). This continues long after she marries Clement Koudelka (Who dislikes his first name as well, preferring to answer to the standard military address of Rank Lastname whenever possible). In fact, in ''Komarr'', which takes place thirty years after said wedding occurs, Miles, who has known the Koudelka family literally his entire life, refers to her as Drou Koudelka.
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* [[Sarah Waters]] has a very neat trick in ''Affinity'', which is made up of two diaries. In the main narrative, {{spoiler|the protagonist sometimes refers to her maid Vigers.}} In the other, {{spoiler|mention is made of a character called [[First-Name Basis|Ruth]].}} They are in fact the same person. The reader only discovers this in the very last pages, and it has terrible consequences.
* After an embarassing incident involving the use of the nickname "Carrots" and a smashed slate over his head, [[Anne of Green Gables|Gilbert Blythe]] is referred to almost exclusively as "Mr. Blythe" almost by Anne Shirley. When she's not snubbing or ignoring him, that is. This goes on for years until they finally become friends, at which point she takes to calling him "Gil".
* In ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', friend of the family Mr. Poe is referred to as Mr. Poe for the entire run, which is justified as it is a somewhat Victorian setting and the Baudelaires are polite children. This is emphasized during ''[[
* ''[[
* Played with in ''[[Catch-22]]''. [[Repetitive Name|Major Major]]<ref>full name Major Major Major, promoted to the rank of Major due to a computer error</ref> earns the rest of his squadron's dislike after being promoted to squadron commander. He fails to earn back their respect, partly because he can't ask to be [[First-Name Basis|addressed casually]] without invoking [[Last-Name Basis]] or his rank.
** Major Major eventually starts authorizing documents (his only job as squadron commander) with the fake signature "Washington Irving" to make the job less monotonous. When he gets bored of that, he switches to "Irving Washington."
* Appears in ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (
* In [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''Merovingen Nights'' [[Shared Universe]] series, Altair Jones and Thomas Mondragon always and only call each other by their last names. They've been lovers since the first book, but even in the final pages of the very last story, following a [[Big Damn Kiss]] as they escape the city, it's still "Jones" and "Mondragon."
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