What’s in a name?

When I was a lawyer, names were very important. Lawyers love their full names. They introduce themselves with them, they have business cards printed with them on, they google them frequently and they write them on badges when they meet other people. In civvy street, names seem to be much more contextual. Many people use only their first names- call centre workers, shop assistants. Other people acquire more names, as they progress in their careers. When I was setting up the company, “Julie” processed my account application which was then finalised by “davidsmith2”. (I did wonder whether this was his real name or one which came with the job).

Is this also a generational thing? I had an interesting conversation over the Summer with 2 friends, one in their 60s and the other in her 80s. I asked them both how they liked to be addressed by people who didn’t know them. What surprised me was that it was the friend in her 60s who preferred to be addressed as “Mrs”, believing that it conferred respect. Both her 80 year old mother and I were much more relaxed about whether we were called by our first names. What, however, was very important to all three of us was that our family used names that denoted our family connections – Mummy, Granny, Auntie. So, not using our given names at all.