Help with article for Swedish magazine?! | General | Forum

Hello everyone:

I'm a Swedish journalist based in Stockholm. I am currently doing research for an article for a popular science journal about language and writing.

I would like to investigate and write about what we call people when they have the same first name, to separate one from the other. In Sweden, when people are called the same, we usually refer to the person with his or her first name, followed by the first letter in their last name (for example Anna K, Anna H, and Anna S). Historically, we used the last names to distinguish people. This of course depends a little on the context, but in schools and at most workplaces we usually do it the way mentioned above.

I want to do a comparison between Swedish and other languages and was wondering how you do this in the UK? I have a feeling that you might do it differently? Are middle names involved to separate two people with the same first name?

Has anyone investigated or written anything about this?

All input would be helpful, looking forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Karin Skagerberg
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