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I also don't get why the hell people pair Severus' last name with his partner's first name in these shorthand dealies; whatever happened to parallel construction?
Two suggestions, of which I think the first is primary:
1. He's called "Snape" in the vast bulk of the text, so it sticks in most people's heads that way. He only gets addressed in speech a few times as "Severus" and he's only called that once in the narrative voice (i.e. Harry's voice) that I can recall (in DH when he sees SWM for the second time). Even fans often stick with "Snape" (witness this is not "severusdom" lol). I think it's only the truly obssessed who make the mental conversion to calling him "Severus" all the time. ;)
(That said, I actually do have a mental division myself between Severus considered as a person and Snape as a book character under casual discussion.)
2. Because "sn" as a word-starting phoneme plays well with others in English (unlike the person it refers to *koff*) and you get good mileage out of it in terms of syllable economy: it can fairly clearly refer to Severus without taking up its own syllble like "Sev" would (Sevarry, Sevaco, Sevirius...).
Personally I do prefer parallel constructions and use "Severus/____" more often than not when writing, although sometimes I use "smush names" as shorthand. Spoken aloud, I do often say Snarry particularly, but some things sound confusing said aloud (Sirry), some I plain don't like whether written or spoken (Snily/Snevans/Sevily), and some that are okay written (IMO) come off too silly when spoken (Snaco, Snack -- I actually think the food implications of "Snack" are pretty clever, but a lot of people think it's extra king-size silly and roll their eyes).
Two suggestions, of which I think the first is primary:
1. He's called "Snape" in the vast bulk of the text, so it sticks in most people's heads that way. He only gets addressed in speech a few times as "Severus" and he's only called that once in the narrative voice (i.e. Harry's voice) that I can recall (in DH when he sees SWM for the second time). Even fans often stick with "Snape" (witness this is not "severusdom" lol). I think it's only the truly obssessed who make the mental conversion to calling him "Severus" all the time. ;)
(That said, I actually do have a mental division myself between Severus considered as a person and Snape as a book character under casual discussion.)
2. Because "sn" as a word-starting phoneme plays well with others in English (unlike the person it refers to *koff*) and you get good mileage out of it in terms of syllable economy: it can fairly clearly refer to Severus without taking up its own syllble like "Sev" would (Sevarry, Sevaco, Sevirius...).
Personally I do prefer parallel constructions and use "Severus/____" more often than not when writing, although sometimes I use "smush names" as shorthand. Spoken aloud, I do often say Snarry particularly, but some things sound confusing said aloud (Sirry), some I plain don't like whether written or spoken (Snily/Snevans/Sevily), and some that are okay written (IMO) come off too silly when spoken (Snaco, Snack -- I actually think the food implications of "Snack" are pretty clever, but a lot of people think it's extra king-size silly and roll their eyes).