Salutation Question: Hi Fred, or Hi, Fred ?

[Will Sansbury]

Lisa Hickling wrote:
> Assuming that commas are "de rigueur" in written salutations, 
> where do you put them? Between the greeting and name or after 
> the name? Why so?
> Is one convention to be preferred over the other?
> 
> I'm for "Hi Fred," and only recently and rarely came across 
> the other form.

A coworker calls me "comma happy" because I'm in the "Hi, Fred" camp. I read
it in my mind with a pause, and I tend to view it as a complete sentence,
which makes the comma make sense.

"Hi, Fred."
"The dog is brown, Fred."

That's my impulse, but I don't think "Hi Fred," is wrong. I do cringe when I
get "Hi Fred" with no punctuation at all, though. That just screams "I'm too
lazy to even try to write correctly. Or get your name right." :)

Will Sansbury