Right. Now, I know we talked about this via IM, but I wanna extrapolate on this just in case anyone's reading the comments (so Stef, feel free to ignore this, as you've heard it all before):
"Jou-kun" might be an acceptable compromise, but it still sounds strange. Why? Because unlike "Jou" as most ficcers use it, "Jou-kun" would really have to be said by a) a girl and b) someone Jounouchi is close with (but probably not his sister, mother, or Mai).
Why a girl? Because boys don't usually shorten full family names into "nicknames" *AND* use honorifics. Girls are the most common culprit of name-modifying at all (as opposed to guys, who either use or don't use honorifics, or use insults/other words to refer to one another), and they love to mash names together WITH honorifics to make them sound cuter, the way Tohru does in Fruits Basket.
Some syllables work better for this than others: ones ending in 'i' sounds (in English, that sounds like a long e) can be "doubled up" and ones with the second-to-last syllable ending in "a" (sounds like English "ah") can have their final syllable dropped and replaced with another one (like 'pi' for Mina-P, Osa-P, or Luna-P). A common way of showing affection (from guy to girl!) is to use this method: look at Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon. Her friends all call her Usagi or Usagi-chan, but Mamoru typically calls her just plain 'Usa' (Oohsa) or Usako (drops the 'gi' and ads 'ko' which is an affectionate term, from the word for 'child'; it's used a lot in girls' names).
Some names DON'T lend themselves to name shortening at all; ones ending in 'e' (eh) sounds are hard to leave short, so they're modified altogether. My roommate in Japan was Kazue; everyone called her Kacchin (Ka[zue]-ch[a]n), like "Kaching!" My other roommate, Midori, was called "Mido-chan." There are endless possibilities for names with certain permutations of syllables, but realize that almost all the examples I'm citing are GIVEN NAMES.
Much of the point of using nicknames is to imply a level of closeness, and using a shortened version of someone's family name doesn't do that. It seems to hedge on being polite (still using their family name) but friendly (shortening the name). Using a shortened version of one's family name with an honorific then implies both politeness, friendliness, and RESPECT for one's family. It can even imply a sense of humor or cuteness, as with Tohru from Furuba.
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"Jou-kun" might be an acceptable compromise, but it still sounds strange. Why? Because unlike "Jou" as most ficcers use it, "Jou-kun" would really have to be said by a) a girl and b) someone Jounouchi is close with (but probably not his sister, mother, or Mai).
Why a girl? Because boys don't usually shorten full family names into "nicknames" *AND* use honorifics. Girls are the most common culprit of name-modifying at all (as opposed to guys, who either use or don't use honorifics, or use insults/other words to refer to one another), and they love to mash names together WITH honorifics to make them sound cuter, the way Tohru does in Fruits Basket.
Some syllables work better for this than others: ones ending in 'i' sounds (in English, that sounds like a long e) can be "doubled up" and ones with the second-to-last syllable ending in "a" (sounds like English "ah") can have their final syllable dropped and replaced with another one (like 'pi' for Mina-P, Osa-P, or Luna-P). A common way of showing affection (from guy to girl!) is to use this method: look at Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon. Her friends all call her Usagi or Usagi-chan, but Mamoru typically calls her just plain 'Usa' (Oohsa) or Usako (drops the 'gi' and ads 'ko' which is an affectionate term, from the word for 'child'; it's used a lot in girls' names).
Some names DON'T lend themselves to name shortening at all; ones ending in 'e' (eh) sounds are hard to leave short, so they're modified altogether. My roommate in Japan was Kazue; everyone called her Kacchin (Ka[zue]-ch[a]n), like "Kaching!" My other roommate, Midori, was called "Mido-chan." There are endless possibilities for names with certain permutations of syllables, but realize that almost all the examples I'm citing are GIVEN NAMES.
Much of the point of using nicknames is to imply a level of closeness, and using a shortened version of someone's family name doesn't do that. It seems to hedge on being polite (still using their family name) but friendly (shortening the name). Using a shortened version of one's family name with an honorific then implies both politeness, friendliness, and RESPECT for one's family. It can even imply a sense of humor or cuteness, as with Tohru from Furuba.