Playing With / Last-Name Basis

Basic Trope: Someone is referred to by their last name.

• Straight: Alice Miller is nearly always referred to as "Miller" by either everybody in the show or specifically by Bob.
• Exaggerated:
  • Even her family, her best friends, and her Love Interests call her "Miller".
  • Everyone gets referred to almost exclusively by their last names.
  • Her first name is never revealed.
• Downplayed:
  • Bob sometimes calls Alice "Miller", but everyone else calls her "Alice".
  • Alice is only called "Ms. Miller".
  • Bob Smith is called "Smitty".
• Justified:
  • Alice is in a military situation.
  • Alice is in a group with multiple Alice's.
  • Someone goes by their last name because they have an Embarrassing First Name.
  • Someone's first name is longer or has way more syllables than their last name.
  • Alice is a miller by trade as well as last name and most are merely referring to her by the former.
  • The work is set in a country where it is standard to refer to people by their last name, such as Japan.
• Inverted: First-Name Basis.
• Subverted: "Hey, Miller...I mean Alice."
• Double Subverted: Then Charlie says, "Yeah, hey, Miller."
• Parodied:
  • It's revealed that pupils at a particular boarding school don't even have first names, which is why they always refer to each other by their last names.
  • Alice and her siblings fight over who gets to be called "Miller".
• Averted: Alice Miller goes by Alice or, in formal situations, Ms. Miller.
• Zigzagged:
  • Bob calls Alice "Alice", Charlie calls her "Miller", Diane calls her "Ally", and Evan calls her "Ms. Miller".
  • Alice Miller gets called "Miller", Robert Smith gets called "Bob", Diane Gibbs gets called "Diane" and Evan Drew gets called "Mr. Drew".
• Enforced:
  • The producer or editor thought it would seem cooler if Alice Miller was never called by her first name, or like it would seem too familiar for people to call her by first name.
  • The work is fully voiced, but the character's first name can be anything the player chooses. Only the fixed last name is spoken.
• Lampshaded: "Why do we never call Miller 'Alice'?"
• Invoked: Alice asks people to call her by her last name.
• Exploited: ???
• Defied: "Call me Alice."
• Discussed:
  Bob: "What's Miller's first name?"
  Charlie: "Alice."
  Bob: "How come nobody calls her that?"
  Charlie: "I don't know."
• Conversed: "Why do the characters call that character by her surname?"
• Played for Laughs: ???
• Played for Drama: ???

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Back to Last-Name Basis.