T Nation

The Deal with Last Names in Any Sport

Off Topic
#1

I’ve been in and out of asia for quite a while and everyone, movie stars,prime ministers, even teachers are referred by their first name. I really don’t know where the custom of referring to a person by their last name started, but for one thing it happens really often in books and tv to men only.

For one thing I prefered to be called Austin not Guss. Everyone in my gym is on a first name thing, why is this formal custom of british tea sipping nerds with pipes and bowler hats happeing in this country of actual athletes.

Guss my dead, more tea and crumpets!

#2

You can’t talk about Asian countries and use “first” and “last” name, since in many Asian cultures the family name comes first and given name second. For instance someone named “John Doe” in our culture would be “Doe John” in another culture, so you think “Hey everyone is calling him by his first name that seems so cultured and intellectual lololol.” when really it’s the same shit. I’m not saying this IS what’s happening, just what MIGHT be happening.

Another possibility is that in European/North American culture family names are more unique than given names (how many Johns do you know? Dave? Paul? Mike?), as opposed to Asian cultures where many people have the same family name due to ancestry, so they identify by given name (there’s 20+ people with family name “Li” in my faculty/year alone, same goes for names like “Lee”, “Wong”, etc).

#3

By athletes I hope you are referring to Track and Field, and NOT the baseball/American Football pansies who are basically our version of Football or Soccer players?

Actually that’s abit unfair, noted your football players are jacked…I just can’t come to terms with the padding

#4

[quote]JLu wrote:
You can’t talk about Asian countries and use “first” and “last” name, since in many Asian cultures the family name comes first and given name second. For instance someone named “John Doe” in our culture would be “Doe John” in another culture, so you think “Hey everyone is calling him by his first name that seems so cultured and intellectual lololol.” when really it’s the same shit. I’m not saying this IS what’s happening, just what MIGHT be happening.

Another possibility is that in European/North American culture family names are more unique than given names (how many Johns do you know? Dave? Paul? Mike?), as opposed to Asian cultures where many people have the same family name due to ancestry, so they identify by given name (there’s 20+ people with family name “Li” in my faculty/year alone, same goes for names like “Lee”, “Wong”, etc).[/quote]

x2. This is why Ichiro’s jersey says “Ichiro” and Yao’s jersey says “Yao.”

#5

[quote]Kungfushish wrote:
I’ve been in and out of asia for quite a while and everyone, movie stars,prime ministers, even teachers are referred by their first name. I really don’t know where the custom of referring to a person by their last name started, but for one thing it happens really often in books and tv to men only.

For one thing I prefered to be called Austin not Guss. Everyone in my gym is on a first name thing, why is this formal custom of british tea sipping nerds with pipes and bowler hats happeing in this country of actual athletes.

Guss my dead, more tea and crumpets![/quote]

And Bob passes to Bob. Bob takes it, dribbles around Bob. Bob is running towards him. Bob looks to the left, he takes aim and shoots! He scores! Bob is looking very dissapointed for not catching Bob’s easy shot.

#6

Most of my friends/colleagues call me by my last name. Many just call me by the first letter of my last name “D”.

#7

If we all went by first or last names exclusively then “His name is Robert Paulson…” wouldn’t have worked.

And that just ain’t right.

I think in the beginnings of America there were only a handful of first and last names to deal with, so the folks of importance went with both in order to be accurately identified. Would the declaration of independence been as effectual if it was only written by Thomas? How about just Jefferson? Nope, gotta use both names. Wanker.