seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from France
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Australia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
Ideally, how would you prefer to be addressed?
Sir / Madam
My Lord / My Lady
Your Grace
Your Majesty
Your Honor
Your Excellency
Brother / Sister
Mother / Father
Captain / Doctor (per accomplishment)
Master / Mistress
Mx. / Ms. / Mr.
Citizen
In an egregious oversight, the Citizen button should read Citizen / Comrade.
Peerages & Titles: everything you need to know
[A heavily researched 6.5k+ hyperfocus from my Google docs, to help your fanfics]
Disclaimers:
Sources are not consistent. You’d think they would be. They are not. I’ve corralled several reliable websites and books into something that I think makes sense, is accessible, and fits [largely] with portrayals in Bridgerton/modern media.
That being said, Bridgerton/modern media make mistakes. You might notice in reading through all this that there is something different to how it is portrayed in media. Feel free to discuss with me, I could very well be wrong, but also know that you are consuming fiction and this is intended to be fact.
However, whilst trying to be correct, many sources are modern and it is difficult to confirm how titling and forms of address may have changed in the past 200–300 years. Though, I imagine not greatly given the peerage and aristocracy still exists.
Where possible, I have used Bridgerton characters as the examples so that it is easier to make sense/contextualise it. Names in red are not characters, just placeholder names. Hence I have reduced, reused, recycled these names.
On the note of using names from within the Bridgerverse, the Marquess of Ashdown was not married when we met him. I’d also like to know what Julia Quinn has against Earls and Marquesses, Marquesses especially.
Second note of using names in the Bridgerverse, I refuse to use Baron of Kent because it is a factual/historical disaster. More on that here.
This only applies to aristocracy of Britain/UK [minimally Ireland, read here], if I do more of Europe/anywhere else I will link it below but let me know if you want that.
All of these posts may be edited/expanded at any time as my research continues.
Further posts:
General info, start here!
Glossary
A brief history of the peerages/titles
The different peerages [England, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland]
How royal titles work
Peerage applications and functions in the modern day
Privileges of the peerage
How titles apply to the child of peers
Rank and precedence within the peerage
Titling rules for non peers
Other roles and titles I can give address information for
Female inheritance of titles
Territorial designations, and when the surname differs from the title name
Haven’t decided if I will do a post on grammar rules when writing peers because despite studying etiquette and titles for over a decade, and linguistics and grammar for seven years, the grammar/capitalisation rules of writing peers broke my final straw of sanity. Let me know how much you want it, or just drop any specific questions.
Put any questions about any of this in my ask :)
–GW xo
One interesting detail that varies between Christmas Carol adaptations is exactly what Scrooge calls Bob Cratchit before his redemption. Calling him "Bob" at the end when he reveals his newfound kindness is always portrayed as a change, but it varies whether beforehand he calls him "Mr. Cratchit" or just "Cratchit."
Since the book doesn't reveal Bob's name until the Ghost of Christmas Present chapter, but just calls him "the clerk," we don't know how pre-redemption Scrooge normally addresses him.
@bethanydelleman's recent post about 19th century formalities of address has made me wonder whether "Mr. Cratchit" or just "Cratchit" would be more realistic. I have no idea how wealthy businessmen usually addressed their clerks. Since male friends commonly addressed each other by their surnames with no "Mr.," it would seem that addressing Bob as "Mr. Cratchit" would add more distance and make it clear that they're a master and employee, not friends; but at the same time, it also adds a hint of respect. Calling him just "Cratchit" seems more intimate yet ruder.
With some exceptions, I've found that in adaptations, the more reserved and "realistic" Scrooges tend to say "Mr. Cratchit," while the more caricatured Scrooges just say "Cratchit."
If you ever wanted to know anything about English peers or titles [royals included],,,, I did weeks of hyper focused research so you don’t have to! There are 12 posts, here is the master post with easy to ready tables about basic forms of address and links to the 11 other deep dives.
LOWKEY if it doesn’t get a modicum of attention I’ll cry and I wish I was kidding
Ancient China was really onto something with courtesy names. Current western culture in my area is very informal and everyone uses first names or nicknames all the time with pretty much everyone right after you first meet and you know what. I don’t vibe with it
How do you generally address patients? Do you say "Hello, Mr/Mrs Patient," or do you just say "Hi Patient Name!" Is it considered rude to call patients by their first name instead of saying Mr/Mrs?
It depends on the patient. I’m in the South so I tend to default to a more formal title because I was raised that way and most of my older patients expect it. But patients who are my age-ish or younger I tend to call by their first names. If they’re slightly older it’s a toss up. Depends on the patient’s personality. But if they’re older than my parents I call them Mrs/Mr First Name usually.
Hello! 🤗 I had a question, if you don't mind, in a Royal Fic if say LWJ was either the Emperor or the Emperor's brother, & he married WWX first & then had a concubine, how would they formally refer to each other? I'm assuming that LWJ would be referred to as either 皇上 or 殿下 or even HGJ. Would WWX be 皇后 to both? And his concubine would be called 嫔妃 by both of them?
Okay well, it would be different depending on whether LWJ was Emperor or Emperor’s brother, and also what era you’re working in (because titles changed depending on the Dynasties/eras and it’s all very complicated). I just finished writing a Qing Dynasty AU so my head is full of those titles, but I’ll try to generalise as much as possible.
Emperor!LWJ
WWX => LWJ = 皇上, 陛下 (depending on era)
LWJ => WWX = 皇后, or by his name in private
WWX => concubine = By the concubine’s title, which depends on the concubine’s rank? Which also differs depending on the dynasty you’re writing in. E.g. if you’re in the Qing Dynasty and the concubine is a 贵人 from the Jin family, then they’ll be called 金贵人 (unless an honorary title was bestowed on them). Maybe 妹妹 as a “friendly” gesture.
LWJ => concubine = by their title (as above), or by their name in private
Concubine => WWX = 皇后娘娘, 娘娘
Concubine => LWJ = 皇上, 陛下 (again, depending on era)
Both WWX and the concubine would refer to themselves as either 嫔妾 or 臣妾 when talking to LWJ, who would refer to himself as 朕 or 寡人 (again, depending on the era - 寡人 was mostly used for pre-Imperial China, Warring States etc.).
When talking to the concubine, WWX would refer to himself as 本宫. The concubine would refer to themselves as 嫔妾.
The term 嫔妃 is mostly used as a collective term for all Imperial concubines.
殿下 is for princes, 陛下 is for Emperors.
Emperor’s Brother!LWJ
WWX + concubine => LWJ = 王爷 (depends on the era and his title - e.g. Qing dynasty would be 贝勒爷)
LWJ => WWX + concubine = their names (LWJ may call WWX 夫人, or refer to him as 王妃 to other people)
Concubine => WWX = 王妃, or 姐姐
WWX => concubine = their name, or 妹妹
Both WWX and the concubine would refer to themselves as 妾身 when talking to LWJ, and LWJ would use 本王 to refer to himself.
I don’t think WWX would use any special form of address for himself when talking to the concubine though?? Maybe 本王妃, but I don’t think I’ve heard that used a lot before...he might call himself 姐姐 lol
New Learnt: Nominals
Check out the rest of Learnt on my website, Cheap Paper Art, and consider supporting my Patreon in the source link.
