Forms of address in the United Kingdom

Forms of address used in the United Kingdom are given below.

Terminology

Abbreviations

Several terms have been abbreviated in the tables below. The forms used in the table are given first, followed by alternative acceptable abbreviations in parentheses. The punctuation of each abbreviation depends on the source. For example, the punctuation of "The Rt Hon" is not consistent throughout sources. The Gazette favours "The Rt. Hon.", while the government usually prefers "The Rt Hon" or "The Rt Hon."

His/Her Majesty: HM ( TM)
His/Her Royal Highness: HRH ( TRH)
His/Her Grace: HG ( TG)
The Most Honourable: The Most Hon (The Most Honble)
The Right Honourable: The Rt Hon (The Rt Honble)
The Honourable: The Hon (The Honble)
The Much Honoured: The Much Hon (The Much Hon'd)
The Most Reverend: The Most Rev (The Most Revd or The Most Rev'd)
The Right Reverend: The Rt Rev (The Rt Revd or The Rt Rev'd)
The Very Reverend: The Very Rev (The Very Revd or The Very Rev'd)
The Reverend: The Rev (The Revd or The Rev'd)
The Venerable: The Ven (The Venble)

"The Most Noble", which is an abbreviation of "The Most High, Potent, and Noble", is rarely used by Dukes and Duchesses; when used, the forenames of the peer or peeress can be used after "His Grace" but before "The Duke of [...]". This style is also sometimes used without "His Grace".

Names and territorial designations

"London" represents the territorial designation of any peerage.
"Edinburgh" represents any territorial designation in Scotland.
"Birmingham" represents any manor in England or Wales.
"John" and "William" represent any male name
"Jane" and "Mary" represent any female name.
"Smith" and "Brown" represent any surname, regardless of gender.

In regards to the nobility, Mary Brown represents a woman who married John Brown, while Jane Smith represents an unmarried woman.

Royalty

{| class="wikitable"

!Position!!On envelopes!!Salutation in letter!!Oral address

|King||HM The King|| rowspan="2" |Your Majesty||Your Majesty, and thereafter as "Sir" (or the archaic "Sire")

|Queen||HM The Queen||Your Majesty, and thereafter as "Ma'am" (to rhyme with "jam")

|Prince of Wales||HRH The Prince of Wales HRH The Duke of Rothesay (in Scotland)|| rowspan="14" |Your Royal Highness||rowspan="14"|Your Royal Highness, and thereafter as "Sir" (for males) or "Ma'am" (for females)

|Princess of Wales||HRH The Princess of Wales HRH The Duchess of Rothesay (in Scotland)

|Princess Royal||HRH The Princess Royal

|Royal peer||HRH The Duke/etc. of London, e.g. HRH The Duke of Edinburgh

|Royal peeress||HRH The Duchess/etc. of London, e.g. HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh

|Sovereign's son (unless a peer)

Spouse to Queen suo jure (in the case of Prince Philip)

|HRH The Prince John

|Sovereign's son's wife (unless a peeress)||HRH The Princess John

|Sovereign's daughter (unless a peeress)||HRH The Princess Mary

|Sons of the Prince of Wales (unless a peer)||HRH Prince John of Wales, e.g. HRH Prince George of Wales

|Daughters of the Prince of Wales (unless a peer)||HRH Princess Mary of Wales, e.g. HRH Princess Charlotte of Wales

|Sovereign's son's son Prince of Wales's eldest son's sons (unless a peer)||HRH Prince John of London, e.g. HRH Prince Michael of Kent

|Sovereign's son's son's wife (unless a peeress)||HRH Princess John of London, e.g. HRH Princess Michael of Kent

|Sovereign's son's daughter Prince of Wales's eldest son's daughters if unmarried (unless a peeress)||HRH Princess Mary of London, e.g. HRH Princess Lilibet of Sussex

|Sovereign's son's daughter Prince of Wales's eldest son's daughters if married (unless a peeress)||HRH Princess Mary, Mrs John Brown, e.g. HRH Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi

|Sovereign's son's son's son (unless a peer) (except sons of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales)||The Lord John Windsor, e.g. The Lord Nicholas Windsor||Dear Lord John||Lord John

|Sovereign's son's son's son's wife (unless a peeress)||The Lady John Windsor, e.g. The Lady Nicholas Windsor||Dear Lady John||Lady John

|Sovereign's son's son's daughter (unless a peeress) (except daughters of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales)||The Lady Mary Windsor, e.g. The Lady Helen Taylor||Dear Lady Mary||Lady Mary

Nobility

The preposition of may be omitted in the form of Marquessates and Earldoms and included in the form of Scottish Viscountcies. It is not often present in peerage Baronies and Lordships of Parliament, though always present in Dukedoms and Scottish feudal Baronies.

The definite article the in the middle of two or more titles is sometimes capitalized, as in these tables. However this is controversial: traditional British guides use the lower-case the. As a single example, Debrett's gives "Major-General the Lord ...", and Pears' Cyclopaedia in the section on Modes of Address gives several examples where the definite article interior to a list of honours is lower case.

Peers and peeresses

{| class="wikitable"

!Position!!On envelopes!!Salutation in letter!!Oral address

|Duke||(The Most Noble) (His Grace) The Duke of London

||My Lord Duke or Dear Duke (of London)||Your Grace or Duke

|Duchess||(The Most Noble) (Her Grace) The Duchess of London||Madam or Dear Duchess (of London)||Your Grace or Duchess

|Marquess||(The Most Hon) The Marquess (of) London||My Lord Marquess or Dear Lord London||My Lord or Your Lordship or Lord London

|Marchioness||(The Most Hon) The Marchioness (of) London||Madam or Dear Lady London||My Lady or Your Ladyship or Lady London

|Earl||(The Rt Hon) The Earl (of) London||My Lord or Dear Lord London||My Lord or Your Lordship or Lord London

|Countess||(The Rt Hon) The Countess (of) London||Madam or Dear Lady London||My Lady||Madam or Dear Lady London||My Lady -->

Knights and Baronets are distinguished by the use of "Bt" (or, archaically, "Bart") after the latter's names (and by the use of the appropriate post-nominal letters if the former are members of an Order of Chivalry). Esquires are distinguished by the use of "Esq" except in the case of a Scottish laird, whose territorial designation implies the rank of esquire.

Baronets

{| class="wikitable"

!width=27.5%|Position!!On envelopes!!Salutation in letter!!Oral address

|Baronet||Sir John Smith, Bt (or Bart)||Sir or Dear Sir John (Smith)||Sir or Sir John

|Baronetess in her own right||Dame Mary Smith, Btss||Madam or Dear Dame Mary (Smith)||Madam or Dame Mary

|Baronet's wife||Lady Brown||rowspan="3"|Madam or Dear Lady Brown||rowspan="3"|My Lady or Lady Brown

|Baronet's divorced wife||Mary, Lady Brown

|Baronet's widow||Mary, Lady Brown Dowager Lady Brown, or Lady Brown (if the heir incumbent is unmarried)

Scottish barons

Barons in Scotland are non-peerage nobles in the Baronage of Scotland. The Scottish equivalent to an English baron is Lord of Parliament.

{| class="wikitable"

! width="27.5%" |'!!Baron!!Baroness or Baron's wife

!Envelope

|(The Much Hon) John Smith [of Edinburgh], Baron of Edinburgh or

(The Much Hon) (The) Baron of Edinburgh

(Incorrect: Baron Edinburgh)

[of Edinburgh] if baron has territorial designation

|(The Much Hon) Jane Smith, Baroness of Edinburgh or

(The Much Hon) (The) Baroness of Edinburgh or

(The) Lady Edinburgh

!Salutation in a letter

|Dear Baron (of Edinburgh) or Dear Edinburgh

|Dear Baroness (of Edinburgh) or

Dear Lady Edinburgh

("Dear Baroness Edinburgh" is incorrect)

!Invitation / Place Card / Introduction

|The Baron of Edinburgh

Together: The Baron of Edinburgh and Lady Edinburgh

|The Baroness of Edinburgh or

Lady Edinburgh

!Oral address

|Baron or

Edinburgh

|Baroness or

Lady Edinburgh ||Madam or as on envelope||Madam or as on envelope

|Chief (etc.)'s heir-apparent||John Smith of Edinburgh, yr or John Smith, yr of Edinburgh or John Smith of Edinburgh (last only if different first name to father)||Sir or Dear Younger of Edinburgh or Dear Mr Smith of Edinburgh||Sir or Young Edinburgh or The Younger of Edinburgh

|Chief (etc.)'s heir-apparent's wife||Mrs Smith of Edinburgh, yr or Mrs Smith, yr of Edinburgh||Madam or Dear Mrs Smith of Edinburgh the Younger||Madam or Mrs Smith of Edinburgh

|Chief (etc.)'s eldest daughter (if none senior)||Miss Smith of Edinburgh or Jane Smith, Maid of Edinburgh||Madam or Dear Miss Smith of Edinburgh or Dear Maid of Edinburgh||Madam or Miss Smith of Edinburgh or Maid of Edinburgh

|Chief (etc.)'s younger daughter||Miss Mary Smith of Edinburgh||Madam or Dear Miss Smith of Edinburgh||Madam or Miss Smith of Edinburgh

Lords of the Manor (England and Wales)

{| class="wikitable"

!width=27.5%|Position!!On envelopes!!Salutation in letter!!Oral address

|Lord of the Manor||John Brown, Lord of the Manor of Birmingham or Lord of the Manor of Birmingham or John Brown, Esq||Sir or Dear Lord of the Manor of Birmingham||Sir or Lord of the Manor

|Lady of the Manor||Jane Brown, Lady of the Manor of Birmingham

|Female Justice of the Supreme Court holding a peerage

|The Right Honourable The Lady Smith

|Lady Smith

|My Lady

|Male Lord Justice of Appeal||The Rt Hon Lord Justice (John) Smith||Lord Justice||Lord Justice||My Lord

|Retired male Lord Justice of Appeal||The Rt Hon Sir John Smith||Judge or Sir John||Sir John||My Lord

|Female Lord Justice of Appeal||The Rt Hon Lady Justice (Mary) Smith, DBE||Lady Justice||Lady Justice||My Lady

|Retired female Lord Justice of Appeal||The Rt Hon Dame Mary Smith, DBE||Judge or Dame Mary||Dame Mary||My Lady

|Male High Court judge||The Hon. Mr Justice (John) Smith||Judge||Judge||My Lord

|Retired male High Court judge||Sir John Smith||Judge or Sir John||Sir John||My Lord

|Female High Court judge||The Hon. Mrs Justice (Mary) Smith, DBE||Judge||Judge||My Lady

|Retired female High Court judge||Dame Mary Smith, DBE||Judge or Dame Mary||Dame Mary||My Lady

|High Court Master||Master (John) Smith (KC should be added if applicable)||Master||Master||Master

|Insolvency and Companies Court Judge||Insolvency and Companies Court Judge (John) Smith (KC, if applicable)||Judge||Judge||Judge

|Circuit judge||His Honour Judge (John) Smith (KC, if applicable)||Judge||Judge||Your Honour

|Recorder

|Mr (or Mrs) Recorder Smith (KC, if applicable)

|Judge

|Your Honour

|District judge||District Judge (John) Smith (KC, if applicable)||Judge||Sir or Madam||Sir or Madam

|Justice of the Peace/Magistrate||Mr John Smith, JP||Mr Smith||Mr Smith or (if "Chair/Lead") Sir or Madam||Sir or Madam (if 'Chair/Lead') or Your Worship

Academics

The forms of address used for academics can, in most cases, be either formal or social.

{|class="wikitable"

!Position!!On envelopes!!Salutation in letter!!Oral address!!In conversation

| Chancellor (formal)||The Chancellor of [university name]||Dear Chancellor||Chancellor (if on a platform) or by name and title||The Chancellor or by name

| Chancellor (social)|| [Name], Chancellor of [university name]||By name||By name or Chancellor||The Chancellor or by name

| Vice-Chancellor (formal)||The Vice-Chancellor of [university name]||Dear Sir/Madam/Vice-Chancellor||Vice-Chancellor (if on a platform) or by name||The Vice-Chancellor or by name

| Vice-Chancellor (social)|| [Name], Vice-Chancellor of [university name]||By name or Dear Vice-Chancellor||Vice-Chancellor (if on a platform) or by name||The Vice-Chancellor or by name

| Professor (formal)|| Professor Jane Smith|| Dear Sir/Madam|| Professor Smith|| Professor Smith

| Professor (social)|| Professor Jane Smith|| Dear Professor Smith|| Professor Smith|| Professor Smith

| Doctor (formal)|| Dr Jane Smith or The Revd John Smith DD or Susan Brown MD or Tom Brown PhD, etc. || Dear Sir/Madam || Dr Smith || Dr Smith

Forms of address in the United Kingdom

Terminology

Abbreviations

Names and territorial designations

Royalty

Nobility

Peers and peeresses

Baronets

Scottish barons

Lords of the Manor (England and Wales)

Academics

See also

Notes

References

External links