Do people actually address their male child "Son" rather than a name, in real life English, or is this mainly a written English usage?
I regularly see films, books, stories and other English usages in which a person uses the term "son" where one might normally use a name. Usually, it's a father and they're portrayed in a reasonably good relationship with their teenage or adult child:
“How was breakfast, son?”
I would expect a close family member to use the first name instead (not “How was school, daughter?” or “How was work, son?”, but “How was breakfast, Alan?” or “Are you okay, Joe?”)
I'm excluding uses of “son” where it's widely used in the UK, such as for emphasis ("Listen, son!") or other proper nouns such as "Father" used as an honorific.
I've never heard a person actually use “son” as one might use a name, but it seems quite widely used in English writing and scripts. Maybe it's a UK/US difference or present in some subcultures and not in others?
Can anyone shed light on whether this is actual usage, or just a writer's trope?
In Britain it is quite common for a man to refer to his own son as "Son", in place of the son's given name. My own father used it with me, and I with my own son and grandson. "Daughter" is far less often used in this way.
It is also not unusual, but perhaps less common than it once was, for any older man to refer to a younger one, affectionately as "son". It can come across as patronising, and be used to imply that the older person knows better, and is speaking in the best interests of the younger man. But it can also come across as a genuine and endearing salutation, even with strangers, especially in perilous situations such as between soldiers.
Yes,I've used the reference to my own son and to my grandsons and male children as a term of endearment and also in a didactic context, such as 'This is how to do it son' or 'boy'. It can be used also in a derogatory or condescending tone but not necessarily so.
Danny, my boy, let me tell you something.
Son, let me show you.
Come here son!