Quote:
Originally Posted by MysticCat
Look at the context of the question:
AOII Angel is answering the question specifically in the Southern context. In my (Southern) experience, Mr. First Name is a very common way for children (up to about15 or 16) to address the adult male friends of their parents and perhaps certain other men. I rarely hear an adult use it.
It doesn't work quite the same way as Miss First Name though. Miss First Name has always been a common way for a person of any age to refer to or address an older woman. (Miss, in this context by the way, has nothing to do with marital status. My grandmother and her sister, one married and one widowed, were widely known as Miss Mary and Miss Suzie 'til the day they died.) I have to say, though, that it is dying out.
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Actually, I was answering the posting from a very SOUTHERN point of view. The practice under discussion is in my experience all but extinct in other areas of the USA. It survives largely in the UK and among the traditional families in the deep South. The 'rules' to which I referred are those in use in New Orleans and other tradition minded Southern localities with which I have had direct experience.
Any male past the age of ten or eleven would not address an adult male not related to him as Mr. John - ever. If related or (rarely) if a family friend of many years standing and great closeness one might use the honorific 'Uncle John' or 'Aunt Alice'. Girls might use the honorific Uncle or Aunt a bit longer but that also is rapidly dieing out except in really die hard families or groups.
Overall, this form of address is strictly bound by 'rules' and not generally bestowed on everyone lest it become a parody of "The Old South" or an affectation.
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