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If someone uses your name in all correspondence with you, and this is not necessary, then what part of the English language is the name?

For example:

What is your point Jay?

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    The addressee? You ask for "part of speech" but it is unclear whether your question refers to the unnecessary habit you mention. It's not strictly unnecessary anyway, we use the person's name in face to face talk too, when we want to emphasise something.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Jul 5, 2018 at 18:21
  • I would add familiar. A letter or email becomes more personal if the recipient's name is used in its text. Similarly when talking, we use the person's name to draw them in closer, or sometimes, to lessen the assault if an admonishment is coming next, to let them know you still love them.
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Jul 5, 2018 at 19:13

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The part of speech for people's names is:

a proper noun or proper name

They act grammatically mostly like other nouns (common nouns) but with some minor differences.

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  • Perhaps add the differences. Capitalization I believe is one.
    – Eliot G York
    Commented Aug 5, 2018 at 14:20
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Stating the addressee in a sentence is called direct address. It should be punctuated like an adverbial phrase. Your example should be punctuated with a comma: "What is your point, Jay?"

This is also known as a vocative.

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What is your point Jay?

In the sentence, which requires a comma before "Jay", "Jay" is a vocative

OED

Vocative (n.) 1.Grammar. ... (as a count noun) a word in the vocative case, or the vocative form of a word. Later also in uninflected languages (such as modern English): a word or phrase being used as a form of address..

1987 Some of us use the vocatives ‘dear boy’, ‘dear girl’, and ‘old thing’ more than seems necessary to those who have good memories for names. Times (Nexis) 20 April

2013 The most famous vocative in Latin, Julius Caesar's ‘Et tu, Brute’. H. Eyres, Horace & Me xiv. 227

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    Hmph. I know nounification is an old thing, but it really grates here.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Dec 10, 2023 at 12:14

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