"Good morning, I'm Daniel your train guard". The contrast with Japan is sharp: "Tanaka desu." (Not that Japanese train staff would think of introducing themselves personally. Indeed, if their company required them to do this, and I suspect that "Daniel" was under orders, they would almost certainly refuse, very politely of course.)

We struggled for long to gain surnames, with all the collection of entitlements (and obligations) and dignities that go with them, and they are not lightly to be cast aside.