5801
Often, names are abbreviated using the initial letter in romanization, or some
random letter, like "A". However, when the name has an affixal 子, that part is
often left, like "A子". I have not seen any other character been treated like
this. For example, I have not seen "A果", "A史", "A美", "A明", "A郎". Why is "子"
treated specially?

Someone might answer that it is to indicate that the person is female. For
that kind of answers, it means that the custom (not the answer) is based on
prejudice and sexual discrimination for thinking that people's gender can be
identified by the name and that "子" means female, and I would have further
questions:

  * Why don't they write the gender normally (explicitly) instead of trying to tuck that information into the abbreviated name?
  * Why is it necessary to indicate that the person is female just when the name ends with "子"?
  * Why is it not necessary to indicate that a person is male?
  * What happens for males whose name end with "子"?

And of course, I appreciate other kinds of answers as well.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-06-09T23:04:21.300
5800
2012-09-12T00:59:59.963
2012-09-12T00:59:59.963
501
question
orthography names abbreviations morphology
Why is the affixal 子 treated specially when abbreviating people’s names?
I think that it is rare to use the words such as A子 and B子 as an abbreviation.
They are [placeholder names](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placeholder_name)
for females, and they do not usually mean that the names actually end with 子.
Just like suffix 子, suffix 男 (such as A男) is often used to make placeholder
names for males. ([Here is a random example which uses A男 and
B子](http://www.wam.go.jp/wamappl/bb13gs40.nsf/0/49256fe9001ac4c749256f350018ed39/%24FILE/siryou6~8.pdf).)

Some people use letters with 子 for females and letters without a suffix for
males. I do not know the exact reason. (Maybe in older time, a person was
assumed to be a male by default?)

Because they are not formed by abbreviation, if one refers to a male whose
name ends with 子, it will be A男, not A子.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-06-09T23:51:37.473
5801
2012-06-10T00:11:41.293
2012-06-10T00:11:41.293
921
15
5800
answer