Post-nominal letters

Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, an academic degree, accreditation, an office, a military decoration, or honour, or is a member of a religious institute or fraternity. An individual may use several different sets of post-nominal letters, but in some contexts it may be customary to limit the number of sets to one or just a few. The order in which post-nominals are listed after a name is based on rules of precedence and what is appropriate for a given situation. Post-nominal letters are one of the main types of name suffix. In contrast, pre-nominal letters precede the name rather than following it, such as addressing a physician or professor as "Dr. Smith".

"Postnominal" redirects here. For adjectives that follow their noun, see Postnominal adjective.

Usage[edit]

Listing order[edit]

The order in which post-nominal letters are listed after a person's name is dictated by standard practice, which may vary by region and context.

A Knight Commander of the is authorised to use the post-nominal KBE, e.g. "Sir Terry Wogan KBE DL" (DL indicating he was Deputy Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire).

Order of the British Empire

A Fellow of the uses the post-nominal FRS and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh FRSE, e.g. "Professor Malcolm Longair CBE, FRS, FRSE" (CBE indicating he is also a Commander of the Order of the British Empire).^[38]

Royal Society

A may use the post-nominal PhD or DPhil (according to the usage of the awarding institution), or the pre-nominals Dr or Dr., e.g. Indiana Jones could be styled "Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr." or "Henry Walton Jones, Jr., PhD", but not "Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr., PhD".

Doctor of Philosophy

A is indicated by the post-nominals PgDip. Someone with a BA, MA and postgraduate diploma could write "BA PgDip MA"^[39] or (following the Oxford Calendar's style) "BA MA PgDip".

Postgraduate Diploma

Commonly seen postnominals for religious orders include OFM for the (Order of Friars Minor), SJ for the Jesuits (Society of Jesus), e.g. "Jorge Bergoglio, SJ,^[40] and OP for the Dominicans (Order of Preachers); most other Catholic religious institutes have specific post-nominal letters.

Franciscans

A BA graduate of the could indicate the university from which they got their degree using "BA (Open)" or "BA Open".

Open University

Someone with a BSc from Cardiff, an MSc from London and a PhD from Cardiff could write "BSc PhD Card, MSc Lond", or "BSc Card, MSc Lond, PhD Card"; alternatively they could choose to omit the lower degrees and simply write "PhD Card" ("London" may be substituted for "Lond" and "Cardiff" for "Card", and institution names could be enclosed in parentheses). If not indicating the awarding universities, they would write "BSc MSc PhD", or simply "PhD".

A member of the British parliament may use the postnominals "MP", e.g. " MP".^[41] Note the post-nominals MP may not be used once someone ceases to be a Member of Parliament, including after Parliament has been dissolved for an election.

Caroline Lucas

A peer who is a member of the Privy Council may use the postnominals "PC"; for non-peers, the pre-nominal "Right Honourable", abbreviated "Rt Hon", identifies them as members. Thus: "The Rt Hon David Cameron MP",^[43] but "The Rt Hon Earl Grey KG PC" (KG indicating he was also a Knight of the Garter).

[42]

Chartered status is shown before the relevant professional membership, e.g. "Prof. Dame DBE FRS CPhys FInstP", where DBE indicates Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, FRS Fellow of the Royal Society, CPhys Chartered Physicist, and FInstP Fellow of the Institute of Physics, the awarding body for CPhys.^[44]

Carole Jordan

In the UK, someone who earned a BA, MA and BSc in that order would normally write "BA, BSc, MA", but in Australia they would normally write "BA, MA, BSc".

"Reverend Canon Mark Tanner MA (Oxon), BA (Hons), MTh" demonstrates: 1) the use of '(Oxon)' to indicate an Oxbridge MA (to avoid confusion with an earned MA); 2) the use of '(Hons)' to indicate an honours degree; 3) ordering of degrees by date gained.

[45]

In Belgium, the persons officially admitted to the Royal Association of Descendants of the are entitled to place the post-nominal initials PB (Patricius Bruxellensis) or - in case they hold a title of nobility - NBP (Nobilis Patricius Bruxellensis) behind their name.^[46]