Pre-nominal letters


Pre-nominal letters are a title which is placed before the name of a person as distinct from a post-nominal title which is placed after the name. Examples of pre-nominal titles, for instance professional titles include: Doctor, Captain, Eur Ing, Ir, CA and Professor; whilst other common social titles are Mr., Master, The Honorable, Ms., Mrs. and Miss. Pre-nominal letters are generally social, but can be professional in nature.

Academic degrees

In some Continental European countries all academic degrees were traditionally pre-nominal.
Pre-nominal academic degrees in German-speaking countries include: Dipl.-Ing., Dipl.-Kfm., Dipl.-Phys., Dr.-Ing., Dr. med. and Mag..
Pursuant to the Bologna process, most of these pre-nominal degrees will be replaced by post-nominal bachelor's and master's degrees; but people who held academic degrees before the Bologna process may continue to use the pre-nominal academic degrees. In contexts where pre-nominal academic letters are used, such degrees may be placed prenominally for consistency.
In Finland, abbreviated academic titles can appear before or after the name. In the United States a person may at their discretion use "Dr." as a pre-nominal or their doctoral degree's initials as a post-nominal, but rarely at the same time. It would also be very unusual to see a professional license used as a pre-nominal in any form.
In Poland, abbreviated academic titles appear as pre-nominal letters: inz. for holders of inżynier degree, Bachelor of Engineering, or Bachelor of Applied Science ) awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty; mgr for holders of a Magister ; mgr inz. for holders of a Magister awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty; dr for holders of a Doktorat ; dr inz. for holders of a Doktorat awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty; dr hab. for holders of a Doktorat and a habilitacja ; dr hab. inz. for holders of a Doktorat and a habilitacja awarded by a polytechnical university or faculty.
In Portugal and the other Portuguese-speaking countries, it is usual for a person with a university degree to be generally referred by the abbreviated pre-nominal title dr., independently of the real degree that he or she holds. The main exceptions to this are the holders of degrees in engineering and architecture, who are referred respectively by the pre-nominal abbreviated titles eng. and arq..

Order of titles

In the UK, those with both a knighthood and rank in the armed forces put the Sir after the other title; for example: Lieutenant General Sir William Leishman; His Eminence Sir Norman Cardinal Gilroy, KBE; Professor Sir Richard Peto.