to be irritated by familiar forms of address?

[MacarenaFerreiro]

Ok not irritated, perhaps more quizzical. Loads of threads about famous people, MPs, Royal family whatever.

Posters referring to Jeremy, Theresa, Will and Kate, Charles, Camilla, Cheryl, Donald etc etc as if they know them personally, it's all very weird. It seems more normal to write a thread about "May" and "Corbyn" rather than "Theresa" and "Jeremy" as if they're the next doo neighbours.

Probably not making a lot of sense but it's just over familiar and a bit weird.

Yes, love, you are

I find it a bit strange too. Mind you, I find the New York Times style of constantly writing "Mr Bloggs" or "Ms Smith" (and always Ms, even if someone chooses to be known as Miss or Mrs) throughout an article a bit grating as well. So I suppose it depends on what you're used to.

I hate this over familiarity and how it affects me too. The insurance company etc who wants to call you by your first name. We have not been introduced, I am not their friend, they work for me so show some courtesy. I am sure customer service and a lot more would be better if we were all just a little more respectful of each other. Old gimmer in case you hadn't guessed.

Don't come to the Scottish central belt, hen. 🍗

It does grate on me also in the way that Roystonv describes.

Oh I don't mind the friendly thing like hen, love etc it's the downgrading of respect in a professional setting which grates. It tries to make a serious transaction less so and I think that is a bad thing.

It depends. I feel weird saying the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, when Kate and William would do. I say The Queen etc, not her maj, Liz or Libby or whatever she is.

Politicians, I tend to say their full name or abbreviate to initials TM, JC, GO etc. I found it creepy the way people called Boris Johnson cute nns like BoJo and used his first name during the Brexit campaign. It took away from the seriousness of what he was doing (and obviously people will have their own opinions on that) and made him seem all cuddly, which I found preposterous.

When I refer to the PM as Theresa, it is quite definitely a downgrading and a deliberate one, at that. She has consistently shown her complete lack of respect for large parts of the population and I am happy to return the favour.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, I have yet to make my mind up about him, but I certainly have not ruled out a verbal downgrading there either. Future events will tell.

But agree about Boris Johnson. Anything that makes him cuddlier is just playing into his hands.

I have a reverse thing about it. All men in the coffee shop queue get called "Sir". I want to be addressed as Madam, not love, darling, mate or nothing at all

I think your irritation at people using names on threads is seriously weird. Why would anyone typed out The Duchess of Cambridge all the time instead of Kate? Abbreviating to initials is no less disrespectful.

Addressing someone by their first name before you have been given leave to do so could be considered rude... but on a thread on a fairly anonymous internet website it's odd to have an issue with it.

I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate it when people call me Mrs Surname. God, it makes me sound like I'm about 90. I much, much prefer someone to use my first name - and I use an abbreviated version of my first name, never the full one - than Mrs Surname (not least becasue my surname is a double-barrelled mouthful, and I prefer Ms, just from an equality POV).

Let's just use first names. We've all got them!