last name (part)

   You will be present on Friday, Boyns?’ says one man to another in The Old Boys, by William Trevor. ‘Yes, of course I shall,’ is the reply, which continues: ‘lncidentally, I must remind you that my name is Swabey-Boyns. I do not address you as Jar.’ (He is speaking to a man whose last name is Jaraby.) In this case Jaraby is well aware that he is using only part of Swabey-Boyns’s name. A genuine difficulty could arise if the modern equivalent of Swabey-Boyns was encountered, since he might well write his name as Swabey Boyns, without the hyphen. In The Ginger Man, by J.P.Donleavy, there is another example of a man addressed by part of his last name, in this case Danger instead of Dangerfield. This might be classed, however, as a nickname formed from the last name. Like Any Other Man, by Patrick Boyle, has a man named McCann addressed as ‘Mac’, a fate which probably befalls many men whose last names begin with ‘Mac’ or ‘Mc’. The same man is addressed by another speaker in the novel as ‘Mr Mac’.