301 Daily Chinese conversational sentences, No.17--ta xing shenme? How to ask a person's name properly in different situation? video link→ https://youtu.be/MPS2XV5Y_94 Compare to 您贵姓，this sentence 他姓什么 is more direct and stronger. Usually used in information registration or asking about a third person. Asking a person’s surname directly in a conversation, the more polite way is to say 您贵姓？ 你叫什么，你叫什么名字 is a casual way to ask someone’s name, usually used to ask a new friend, a kid, a student, an employee, an so on. When we know someone’s surname, we can also address their surname in a casual way. As we said in the last episode, we usually call someone’s name by 2 characters. So we can use 小/little or 老/old + a surname. For example the surname 黄，young people we can call them 小黄，little huang, middle and senior age people we can all them 老黄, old huang. It's a very common use to address a colleague. It sounds quite professional and also friendly.