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Weird? Pretty much.

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Regenbogen:
Book 5 and still polite. ;)

I remember some old movies, where people (dating couples as well as bosses to their underlings) used the polite form, while using the given names. I always thought that weird. Because if you use the polite form you would address people by their last name and put Herr or Frau in front.
Then I was in 10th grade and the teachers had to ask us if we would prefer them to still use the familiar form or if we would prefer the polite form for grown-ups. The decision depended on the teacher and the whole class would be addressed the same way.
If we decided to be addressed like grown-ups, then the teacher used the given name and the polite form. Felt weird at first, but I got used to it. But usually it is used with the last name. Used with the given name it causes a feeling of inferiority which when I think about it was the case in the old movies, because the boss was a man an he addressed his female secretaries that way, while they used his the polite form too, but with "Herr" and last name.
And the dating couples both used polite form with given names.
But the couples still felt weird.

There was a doctor who was my boss for a while. He sometimes called some of us by their given name using the polite form, too. But with him it was just that he sometimes forgot their last names, lol. And among ourselves we use the given names, so that's what he heard the most. But he always set "Frau" or "Herr" in front of the names. That's not how it was done, but he was a nice boss, so we let him. He is long gone, and there are still some that address each other that way for fun to keep him remembered.

Dina:
I like that way to honor his memory  :)

I know what you meant about feeling weird. I have a ph. D. That means that I am often introduced as Dr. GivenName FamilyName ( ;D). In normal circumstances, when among colleagues or students at the university, I am called just GivenName. But in formal circumstances, mainly with someone mentiones me speaking with another person, I am Dr. FamilyName. That is the norm. But some years ago, I went to México, and even when I was formally introduced same than here, at work, even among colleagues, they called me Dr. GivenName. It was superweird. "Dr." goes with FamilyName!
(it was not personal for me, all ph.D were referred as Dr. GivenName, while the graduates (not ph.D) were called "Biologist GivenName"

Piece of almost random trivia. In Spanish, a given name is a "nombre de pila". The funny thing is that "pila" is also the Spanish name for battery. So, it sounds as if you were saying "name of battery" (yes, like Duracell). But in actual fact, "pila" has several meanings (including "a ton") and one of them is "pila bautismal", which is the baptismal font (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptismal_font). So, "nombre de pila" is the name you receive at the baptism. Obviously, not everybody is baptised now, but that is the origin of the expression.


In other topics, I am super thrilled because I was the assistant director of the final work of a student who was graduating as biologist. He presented his final dissertation last week and all went well. I am happy and much lighter than last week! I was stressed.

Luckily I will be able to relax in the Holy Week.

Also, today (yesterday actually) I had the first virtual class after a couple of classes at the university. I really like teaching online  :)

Fcrate:
Hello everyone, hope you are doing well.
We don't use surnames or middle names here. Only first names (and informally, the father's name if the name itself is too common, like Mohammed), followed by the father's name, then grandfather, sometimes with a family name after that. It sounded confusing to me when I learned about surnames in school. I mean, potentially, a small family can have 3 Mr <insert surname here> ;while an extended family can have tens of them. I'm typing on my phone so I'm not going to discuss the philosophy of it. Lol

Dina:
Yes, but that is normal for us. We think your names are too long. I mean, the actor playing Bashir is Siddig El Tahir El Fadil El Siddig Abdurrahman Mohammed Ahmed Abdel Karim El Mahdi.  Ehrm... I know he went by Siddig El Fadil and later Alexander Siddig, but still, that is his name. By contrast, we rarely have more than 4 names (Given names + Family names). In Spain is common 2 given names and 2 family names with an "y" in the middle of the family names (y="and"). I like it because those family names were mother and father. I have two family names but both are my dad's (he had my grandad and my grandmom's though). But we don't use the middle y.

Fcrate:
I don't know this actor, but we only ever use the first name. And in school or large meetings where names might get repeated, it'd be two names (You and your father).
only the government ever uses more than two. Ours uses 4 names in your ID and official papers.
So, formally, you'd call that guy Mr Saddig.

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