Miss Daisy?

[diamondcutter]

I have an impression that we can say Miss + last name or Miss + the full name, but we can’t say Miss + first name. However, I read a book called “Miss Daisy Is Crazy”. In this book, Miss Daisy is the name of a primary school teacher and her pupils call her Miss Daisy. I want to know why the children call their teacher this way and whether it is common.

 

[Rover_KE]

It's very common in American English – particularly in the above context. (Also 'Mrs Phoebe'/Mr Derek etc.)

It's also frequently used by children to address the adult friends of their parents (in the UK, parents typically tell their children to call their adult friends Uncle George/Auntie Betty – despite their being unrelated).

Additionally (and I suspect this happens throughout the English-speaking world), employees frequently call their bosses/superiors Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms [given name]* when there exists a certain level of friendship/informality between them, or to distinguish them from other employers with the same surname.

* cf Driving Miss Daisy

 

[emsr2d2]

Using "Miss" or "Mr" followed by a first name isn't bad grammar but it's a bad custom. It originated in the US in the days of slavery. Slaves were encouraged to address their "owners" as "Master/Miss" then their first name (not their surname/family name). For me, it still has those connotations. If you read the plot outline of Driving Miss Daisy (great film), you'll see how it applies.

When I was at school, from the age of five to sixteen, we called our teachers Mr/Mrs/Miss followed by their surname. At college, from sixteen to eighteen, we addressed our teachers/tutors/professors solely by their first name, with the exception of one particularly unpleasant English Literature teacher who insisted on "Professor + surname". She wasn't very popular, with students or other teachers!

 

[jutfrank]

It's not just about slavery, I don't think, (and I'm sure it didn't originate in the US) but about personal servility in a more general sense. One would only address a superior by the first name whom one had a close or familiar relationship with. In Star Wars, C-3PO calls Luke Skywalker 'Master Luke' in the same way. It shows deference and familiarity at once.

 

[emsr2d2]

I should have reordered my sentence or at least added some punctuation. I mean that, in the US, it came from slavery, rather than that it came from the US.

 

[Tdol]

At college, from sixteen to eighteen, we addressed our teachers/tutors/professors solely by their first name, with the exception of one particularly unpleasant English Literature teacher who insisted on "Professor + surname". She wasn't very popular, with students or other teachers!

But she wasn't wrong.