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 (European Engineer), Ir (Ingenieur) 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 (e.g. Eur Ing).

Academic degrees

In some Continental European countries all academic degrees were traditionally pre-nominal. For example, pre-nominal academic degrees in German-speaking countries include: Dipl.-Ing. (Master's degree in Engineering), Dipl.-Kfm. (Master's degree in management), Dipl.-Phys. (Master's degree in physics), Dr.-Ing. (German doctorate in engineering), Ing., Dr.med. (German doctorate in Medicine) and Mag. (Austrian Master's degree (Magister) in all disciplines except engineering). In Finland, all academic degrees are pre-nominals.

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 (for example, 'MMathPhil Marcos Cramer').

Order of titles

In the UK, those with both a knighthood and rank in the armed forces (or clergy, or academic titles) put the Sir after the other title; for example: Lieutenant General Sir John Leishaman; His Eminence Sir Norman Cardinal Gilroy, KBE; Professor Sir Richard Peto.

See also

• Suffix
• Title
• Honorific
• Post-nominal letters