Does anyone still call their friends by their last name?

[Smarmie Doofus]

29. Interesting. I always thought it was a working class thing and especially male.

If you watch the original Honeymooners episodes ( 1955-ish) Ralph NEVER calls Ed Norton "Ed"; *never*. He exclusively calls him "Norton." I always thought of this as a sort of put down. That it was Ralph's way of asserting dominance in the relationship ... even though Ed is by far his best friend in the world.

Similarly... lowly privates in the army are... or used to be... addressed by their drill instructor by last names only... minus of course the honorific or rank. In other words never Private Jones, Private Smith.... always "Jones", "Smith". The idea was to promote intimidation and establish dominance and hierarchy.

For this reason I never called my friends by their last names, except tongue in cheek. Now, in the working world there's a different protocol that prevails. One calls a close coworker ( a peer) by their first name.; last name w. honorific if not so close. Now when talking about someone at the workplace ... TO someone else at the workplace ... it is /was quite common to refer to the absent person by the last name only. This did not necessarily imply any dislike or disrespect.

In fact... in context it could signify the opposite. If you were told to send something up to , say, "Liebowitz", that meant Liebowitz , male or female, was known by all, did not have to be further identified and was a *fixture*. In other words, had gravitas.