Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-7302713-20130510215247/@comment-9426728-20130511191234

I hope a policy is made. It's a little patronizing to call women/female characters by first name (which is typically used for children or those of "lower status", like waiters) while men/males are referred to by surname. Unfortunately, this is frequently a problem created by the writers who often don't provide a last name for female characters.

I think that since there are several characters with similar last names, I think it would be best to refer to all characters by first name or, if there are several characters with the same first name, by first name, last name initial. I also think this would work because it's not unheard of to have several characters in a storyline have the same last name (like "Smith" or in cases where there is a couple or family) but it is very unusual to have a storyline with more than one person with the same first name.

The complication arises when it seems more appropriate to refer to characters as they are addressed in the storyline (like Madame Vastra or Mr. Sweet). In these cases, I think writers have provided a professional or titled name, we should go with what the writers have provided.

I think whatever decision is made is could be mentioned in the style guide and changes made when editors come across incidents where they need to be made.