I’d say this is the most correct thing for the first two-three emails with people we are not familiar with.
Depending on the context and conversation, you can sign down with your first name and if they do it too, for a couple of times and it is not an automated signature (like some people in corporate environments tend to have) then you can seamlessly switch to “Dear/Hello James/Jim”.
Shuko won a major japanese title when he was over 60 years old.
There is hope even if we are not at the same level ofc.
So you’d change how they write their name? If they sign Jim, you’ll call them James? I find it rude, but I guess it’s not unusual, after all.
This might change with cultures.
In Italy we switch to first name when there’s some knowing each other and sympathy.
I think in English speaking business environment it’s usual to address people by first name even when you never met them before.
At least that’s my working experience.
But if I understand your question, you’re asking about using a short name instead of full name. Is that correct?
My name is Luigi, which can be shortened as Gigi. The shortened version is usually more friendly and I wouldn’t use it in business.
But if you’re using “Gia” instead of your full name in your own signature, I think I would use it too in my reply.
I would feel a little uncomfortable the first time, because I’d feel that as too friendly for that business situation, but if you like it and are comfortable with it, I’d use that too.
I’d understand though if someone prefer to go with the full name for politeness.
I wouldn’t expect ever that someone who isn’t a friend of mine would change my full name or my short name into something else (e.g. some other way of shortening).
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It depends on the business situation. I either use the surname or the first name indicated. I try to copy both names as indicated in the signature or the name card, because it may be a cultural or corporate thing, especially if it is a foreign name.
I never use the short/friendly forms first unless the other person indicates so in their signature. If they sign “Christina”, I use “Christina”, if they sign “Christina Whatever”, I use “Ms Whatever”.
In Greece, we rarely use the original first name, we use the spoken language abbreviations, but we also don’t use the diminutives unless among family or close friends. If I wanted, I could sign as “Tina” instead of “Christina”, but people at work would never call me Christinette or Tinee.
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My mail address is Catherine Whatever. I sign my mail “Best, Kate”, but the other person insists on addressing me “Dear Catherine”.
I find it a weird thing to not adapt and say “Dear Kate”.
If they want to be formal, they can use “Dear Mrs. Whatever” (at least that’s what I do), not override what I choose.
It’s more of an “international communications” version, because my Greek name is hard to pronounce. I’ll usually use Gia Whatever.
I never use anything other than my full name in Greek.
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Fun fact: there’s an old socialite (old Athens money), I think she’s about 70 now, that has always gone by the name Μπουμπού Μπαρμπαλιά (Boubou Barbalia). Boubou is a cute way to refer to a baby girl. It can be used affectionately, but by people really close.
Her name is actually Maria. I guess they called her that in her debutante season and it stuck?
I will give you an actual example with this. Let’s say I got an email from someone named James.
- If during the email exchanges he switches to signing out as “Jim”, then I’d still use “James” on the next email, just in case they made a mistake or they signed off in a hurry.
- In this case I would sign with my own abbreviated name to encourage a more casual exchange of emails. (I almost always do that because no foreigner can pronounce it, but we are talking “in principle” here since they do not know that it is abbreviated in the first place)
- If they use Jim again, then this means it was not a mistake and I can use “Jim” without any issue of sounding too forward or too casual. If they switch to “James”, then I keep it that way.
If you want it in an algorithm, this is a variation of the [“three way handshake”] 
(TCP 3-Way Handshake Process - GeeksforGeeks)
There are people that use their abbreviated names as their “formal” names, usually famous people (and there are jokes about that ), but you can find normal people that will never use their original name and sometimes you cannot even guess what that is.
E.g. Haris (Charalampos or Charilaos or Theoharis or Charidimos), Dimos (Dimitris, Dimosthenis, Charidimos etc), Takis (Lots of choices there), Makis (Asimakis or Gerasimakis?) , Tina (Aikaterini or Christina?) and so forth. And let’s not mention weird abbreaviations that are just odd (I knew a woman named Nandy and I eventually found out her real name was Konstantina → Ntina → Nanty 
)
Be that as it may, it is not the end of the world if someone uses the formal name instead of someone’s abbreviated name. Being too casual might be deemed a bit off, but being too formal is rarely deemed an issue. If someone actually gets offended by such slight mistakes while establishing a professional communication with someone they do not know yet, I’d be really surprised.
In my experience, almost everyone adapts to the name I give, if only because it’s simpler this way. If you sign “Kate” then their next email will begin with “Dear Kate”.
But there is one notable exception. People from administrations. People from administrations tend to use the name they have on file, and no amount of correcting them will work.
I even had to deal with an administration that had a typo in my name in their file. I kept correcting them but they were very insistant that they knew my name better than me.
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My guess is that they want to use first name but aren’t sure about short name.
Maybe they want a double check.
Maybe you can help me with this one: my parent’s doctor has name Michael Michalakis.
I have trouble understanding what’s the first nane. Neither of those words is Italian. In Italy we are used to the English or French first name Michael, so I thought Michalakis was the family name. But then I found a website where they are written the other way.
Is actually Michalakis a first name somewhere? It sounds Greek to me, I tried to google it but it doesn’t seem very popular.
(Of course I’ll ask him, which is the best option, but in the meantime…)
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I’d write “Dear Michael Michalakis”… This may sound weird but people have already written emails to me starting with “Dear (first name) (last name)”, probably because they thought “Dear (first name)” would be too familiar but “Dear Mr (last name)” would be too formal.
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That’s what I also do, especially when I don’t know what goes where in foreign names.
Michael is a first name. Michalakis is a surname, and -akis (for example, someone called Whateverakis) surnames usually show some ancestry in Crete island.
That’s for the context you mentioned, someone called Michael Michalakis.
However
Michalakis on its own is a diminutive of Μιχαήλ - Μιχάλης - Μιχαλάκης (Michael - Michalis - Michalakis). It’s used only to small children, unless the adult is really close to you. You’d never call someone like that on your own, only if you’d like it to sound insulting. Michalis is the form of the name used mostly in everyday life, people don’t use the version Michael, only when they need to declare their full name.
Note: the reason why Cretan surnames have the same -akis ending that is also a common male diminutive ending (we would call Jim “Jimakis”) is related, but it’s another discussion.
Also, keep in mind we drop the final -s when we call someone, but that’s also another discussion.
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In that form yes, and also a Christian name now, but unless I’m very mistaken the original name Michael is Jewish.
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How much freedom should we give the translators of unabridged fiction?
- a) they should be free to alter the text to suit the target language, without altering the original intent, so that the text flows and the story is interesting
- b) they should be free to modify and/or retract text that is not relatable to the target audience, so that the text flows and the story is interesting
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I vote for ‘‘a’’ but it seems that ‘‘b’’ is an acceptable option in the publishing world.
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Regarding b): I recall reading that the French translation for Harry Potter initially cut off parts of the books and in particular big chunks of the third book, on the grounds that Harry Potter was for children and that the third book had dark subplots that were not appropriate.
Of course they were forced to backtrack once Harry Potter became too popular. Although I suppose it turned into an argument to convince people to buy the new editions.
Source: Harry Potter : Les passages supprimés des premières éditions françaises
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Harry Potter was even translated into American English when published in the USA market
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Sometimes books and films that are marketed to children get this kind of editing, or even a complete overhaul (the entirety of Disney fairytales).
It’s not so much the censorship that annoys me but the fact that the publisher hushes the information and announces the product as “whole”. It’s the lie that gets me.
I had this kind of problem with Chinese novels translated in English (entire paragraphs missing as “irrelevant to westerners”! 
), but lately I noticed the same thing happening in other languages as well (German to Greek, English to French, probably more but I can’t personally check).
The editors decide what is ‘‘culturally relevant’’ (what?!) to the audience to ensure a smooth reading (what?!).
The Harry Potter example is a good one, because the books are so prominent. Imagine what happens to less known books.
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quote:
From their next project, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World , they trimmed about 100 pages. Although Murakami said that he wanted to write the book to include some “illogical” sections, Birnbaum and Luke feared that American readers would lose interest and made significant cuts.
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