Honorifics/Titles

xylophone

When I was young (ah, the dear dead days beyond recall),  I worked for an institution which invariably used "Esquire" for gentlemen....

PRAISETHESUN

MattMattMattUK said:

I am studying an PhD part time, it is likely to take me 4-5 years to complete, but I will certainly be using Dr once I get it, I am not putting all that effort in to not get free upgrades on flights!

Flights are one of the places I don't like to use my title... last thing I want to do is get confused for an actual medical doctor!

Fenvagabond

Thanks to all for the input.

pochisoldi

Until at least 1980s, my Dad's bank statements (and possibly his chequebook) all had the Esq honorific. Not sure when it stopped.

I also remember seeing a partially used chequebook with a preprinted Inland Revenue stamp duty paid mark on it. Apparently it used to be 2d per cheque...

Flugelhorn

MeteredOut said:

CliveOfIndia said:

DullGreyGuy said:

It really confuses the hell out of the US that UK surgeons use the title Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms/Mx rather than Dr

I've always found this slightly odd (with respect to medical doctors).  You slog your guts out for years, study and work really hard, finally you're allowed to call yourself "Dr", and (probably quite proudly, and absolutely rightly so) use that as a title.

Then you do even more studying, even more hard work, become a surgeon or a consultant or whatever, and then go back to calling yourself Mr. or Mrs. or whatever.  I've always wondered where this convention comes from.  Put in all that work for the right to call yourself Dr., then do even more work and drop the title.  Seems odd to me, but I'm sure there's a reason for it.

I'd like to think most doctors qualify for that role, and beyond, for more than recognition from random people they hardly know, especially when those people most likely don't care about suffix a medical profressional choses to use so long as the they are doing the job they being paid to do.

Although I did once go out of my way to call a surgeon "doctor" after he'd corrected me twice, both times in a very snotty manner, for accidentally doing so.

And I always though Esquire was a magazine....

LOL - I boo-booed once, as an English doctor I had to contact a Scottish gynaecologist - in England they are Mr and in Scotland (so it appeared at the time) they prefer to be Dr. 

 

boingy

Fenvagabond said:

Thanks to all for the input.

I'm not sure we're helping but it's an enjoyable thread.
As to your question, I think you will just have to put up with it and I imagine banking is not the only place where you have this problem. My brother-in-law uses his middle name as his main name and hates it when he gets an official letter that uses his given names in the "proper" order. But he has to put up with it.

MeteredOut

OP could always change their last name to Esquire by deed poll, and have their middle name as their existing surname, or double-barrel their first name. That'll show those companies and their archaic systems!

EarthBoy

pochisoldi said:

Until at least 1980s, my Dad's bank statements (and possibly his chequebook) all had the Esq honorific. Not sure when it stopped.

I also remember seeing a partially used chequebook with a preprinted Inland Revenue stamp duty paid mark on it. Apparently it used to be 2d per cheque...

My Williams & Glyn's, later Royal Bank of Scotland, chequebook had Esq on it. I closed the account around 1990, so I don't know how long it would have continued. 

Stamp duty on cheques ended in 1971.

pridehappy

I’m not sure about 100% operations, but when you open a Nationwide Current Account, they provide the option to switch the name on your card to solely your first name and surname (removing titles).

Fenvagabond

pridehappy said:

I’m not sure about 100% operations, but when you open a Nationwide Current Account, they provide the option to switch the name on your card to solely your first name and surname (removing titles).

Nationwide have done just that on my card including putting on ESQ.

In a nutshell, I'm not that worried about using Esquire though there's a personal reason as to my prefernce in it's use. All I would like is the option to leave the title Mr out of my name.