Home > List of post-nominal letters

An individual may use several different sets of post-nominal letters. Honours are listed first in descending order of precedence, followed by degrees and memberships of learned societies in ascending order.

Obsolete positions are not listed unless recipients, who continue to use the post-nominals even after the order becomes obsolete, are still living.

1 The United Kingdom

Notes:

[1] The letters "PC" are used only by peers. For other Privy Counsellors, "Rt. Hon." before the name suffices. The distinction is caused because peers may already hold the title "Rt. Hon." while not being a Privy Counsellor, while the same cannot be said of commoners.

[2] The exact post-nominal for university degrees varies based on the faculty in which the degree was obtained.

[3] There are too many religious orders, learned societies, royal academies , and professional institutions to be listed. One example is provided in each case; the format shown should be followed for other organizations, except that the initials of the organization should be substituted.

[4] "Member of Parliament" is used in the UK and other Commonwealth nations to describe members of the lower house of Parliament only. In the UK, members of the House of Commons are described Members of Parliament, but members of the House of Lords are not.

[5] In the Armed Forces, two or more branches may have officers with the same or similar titles, such as "Captain," which is a position in the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, and Royal Marines. To differentiate between the branches, post-nominals such as "RN" are used. However, such post-nominals are not used for the higher positions, since the higher officers are differently-titled in each branch.

[6] "RN" or "RNR" is used for officers with the rank of Captain or below.

[7] In the Army, the initials of the regiment or corps of the officer are used as post-nominals.

[8] "RAF" or "RAFVR" technically should be used for officers with the rank of Air Chief Marshall and below, though, in practice, it is used for officers with the rank of Wing Commander and below.