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I recently finished a lovely book about old Japanese horror tales and noticed that practically all the female characters had the letter O attached in front of their names (as in O-Yuki, O-Taka, O-Sono...). Can anyone tell me what the use of the "O" is for, and what it means? I was thinking it stood for "Miss" or something - am I right? Also, even though I haven't exactly studied Japanese culture, I've never the O being used in front of feminine Japanese names before. The book I read was written in the early 20th century, and most of the stories in it were set in the 1800's (or earlier), so is this an old title which isn't used anymore, or is it just that I haven't paid attention to it before?

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