Editing Style (form of address) (section)

===United States===
The names of most current and former elected federal and state officials and judges in the United States are styled "[[The Honorable]]" in writing,  (e.g., "The Honorable Mike Rawlings, Mayor of the City of Dallas"). Many are addressed by their title in conversation as "Mister" or "Madam" ("Mr. President", "Madam Mayor") or simply by their name with their appropriate title e.g., "Senator Jones" or "Commissioner Smith".<ref name="Vanderbilt">{{cite book |last1=Vanderbilt |first1=Amy |title=The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette |date=1995 |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=9780385413428 |edition=50th Anniversary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wu_uw8aUE5wC}}</ref><ref name="Service Etiquette">{{cite book |last1=Conetsco |first1=Cherlynn |title=Service Etiquette |date=2009 |publisher=Naval Institute Press |isbn=9781591143574 |edition=5th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DYTXwAEACAAJ}}</ref>

Continued use of a title after leaving office depends on the office: those of which there is only one at a time (e.g., president, speaker, governor, or mayor) are only officially used by the current office holder.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} However, titles for offices of which there are many concurrent office holders (e.g., ambassador, senator, judge, professor or military ranks, especially [[colonel]] and above) are retained for life: A retired U.S. Army general is addressed as "General (Name)" officially and socially for the rest of their life. Military retirees are entitled to receive pay and are still counted as members of the United States Armed Forces. Accordingly, all retired military ranks are retained for life pursuant to Title 10 of the United States Code. In the case of the President, while the title is officially dropped after leaving office{{citation needed|date=December 2020}} – e.g., Dwight Eisenhower reverted to his prior style "General Eisenhower" in retirement – it is still widely used as an informal practice; e.g., Jimmy Carter was often called President Carter during his lifetime. The Vice President is typically referred to as "former Vice President", such as "former Vice President Mike Pence." Similarly, governors are typically addressed in later life as "Governor (Name)", particularly if running for further political office. [[Mitt Romney]], for example, was frequently referred to as "Governor Romney" during his [[Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign|2012 presidential campaign]] and was addressed as such formally in the debates,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.debates.org/voter-education/debate-transcripts/october-22-2012-the-third-obama-romney-presidential-debate/|title=CPD: October 22, 2012 Debate Transcript|website=www.debates.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=October 16, 2012 Debate Transcript, Obama vs Romney|url=http://debates.org/index.php?page=october-1-2012-the-second-obama-romney-presidential-debate|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905055611/http://debates.org/index.php?page=october-1-2012-the-second-obama-romney-presidential-debate|archive-date=5 September 2015}}</ref> having been [[Governor of Massachusetts]] until 2007.<ref name="Vanderbilt"/><ref name="Service Etiquette"/>

*The names of judges are styled "The Honorable" in writing, and orally in court as "Your Honor", or by name after "Judge". [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief justices of supreme courts]] are addressed orally as "Mr. or Madam Chief Justice" or "Chief Justice"; associate justices by name with "Justice" (or, simply "Justice").
*The names of mayors are styled "The Honorable" in writing. In municipalities (e.g., New York City and Chicago), mayors are addressed in conversation as "Your Honor". This may be a vestige of the fact that the mayors (and some others) were also [[magistrate]]s of the court system.
*His or Her Excellency (oral address "Excellency", "Your Excellency") was once customarily used of governors of states, though this has given way to "The Honorable", the form used to address all elected officials in the United States. "Excellency" has continued in the [[Commonwealth (U.S. state)|Commonwealths]] of [[Massachusetts]] and [[Virginia]] and the states of [[South Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[New Hampshire]], and [[Connecticut]].
*The names of members of the House of Representatives are similarly styled in writing as "The Honorable". Orally they are traditionally addressed by name as "Mr." or "Ms.", but as a practice are sometimes addressed as "Representative" or "Congressman" or "Congresswoman" when it is necessary or desirable to specify the member's status. It is advisable to follow the preference of the individual official. Following precedence in Westminster style of parliament, when writing their own names, especially on stationery and [[Franking|franks]], Representatives have upon occasion followed their names with "M.C." (Member of Congress).<ref>See, e.g., [[:File:Congressional Frank 1921 T.S. Butler.jpg]] (scan of a Representative's frank).</ref> The names of senators similarly are addressed in writing as "The Honorable" and orally as "Senator". Where Representatives may have used "M.C.", Senators have used "U.S.S." (United States Senator).<ref>See, e.g., [[:File:Franked.jpg]] (scan of franked envelope from a U.S. Senator).</ref> However, neither form is currently used by members in Washington, DC. On the actual floor of the houses during debate, members commonly refer to one another as the gentleman or gentlewoman from their appropriate state (e.g., "As my friend, the distinguished gentleman from Ohio, just said..." or "I yield three minutes to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Smith"). In debate, senators sometimes refer to colleagues as the junior or senior senator from a state, (e.g., "I disagree with my dear friend, the junior senator from Ohio..."). Senators also commonly use this form of address.
*While the term "[[Esquire]]", abbreviated "Esq." after the name (John Jones, Esq.), has no legal meaning in the U.S. and may be used by anyone (or at least, customarily, by any male), it is correctly used when addressing lawyers in correspondence as an indication of their profession. At least one American jurisdiction, the District of Columbia, limits the use of "Esquire" (and similar terms) to licensed attorneys.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ethics Opinion 344 |url=http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/ethics/legal_ethics/opinions/opinion344.cfm#ftn3|publisher=The District of Columbia Bar |access-date=5 January 2011|year=2011}}</ref> Although some authorities previously urged that use of "Esq." should be restricted to male lawyers, today the term is used for both male and female attorneys. The academic post-nominal ''J.D.'' ([[Juris Doctor]]) may be used by graduates of law schools who are not members of the bar of any state or who are working outside the legal profession.
*In academic fields, it is customary in the U.S. to refer to those holding any level of professorship (professor, assistant professor, associate professor, adjunct professor, etc.) as "Professor" – as in "Professor Jones" – orally or in writing. In writing, "professor" is often abbreviated as "Prof.", as in "Prof. Jones". Those holding academic doctorates are frequently referred to as "Dr. Jones."
*Military personnel of any functionality (doctors, lawyers, engineers, cooks, fighter pilots, motor pool drivers, commanding officers, security guards ... officers and enlisted ... leaders and followers) are always addressed by rank + name; with the exception of [[chaplain]]s, who are addressed as "Chaplain" and are addressed in writing with their rank in parentheses, e.g.: "Chaplain (Major) Jones". An exception to this is in the Navy, where in writing the rank is either not used, or is used before the person's name with the corps designator "CHC" indicating the officer is a chaplain put behind their name. e.g.: "LT George Burdell, CHC, USN". In the United States Navy, there is an internal practice aboard ships that junior officers who are not in command may be addressed by their rank or as "Mister/Miss X" as in "Lieutenant Junior Grade Smith" or "Miss Smith". This practice is also followed within the United States Coast Guard, both aboard ship and ashore. Junior officers in both services are understood to be those of [[lieutenant commander]] and below. Senior officers ([[commander]] and above) are addressed by their rank as in "Commander Smith" or "Admiral Smith". While officially this manner of address is supposed to be from a senior rank to a junior rank, i.e. captain to lieutenant, in practice it is not unknown for enlisted personnel to refer to junior officers as Mister as well. While commonly referred to by their rank, i.e. Seaman/Airman/Fireman/Petty Officer X or (Senior/Master) Chief X, on formal occasions, e.g. weddings, an enlisted man's full title is sometimes used, starting with their rating, then their rank, and their name, e.g. Electronics Technician Second Class X or Chief Gunner's Mate Y. When written, e.g. in formal invitations, the enlisted man's name is written as "''Serviceman's name'', USN/USMC/USA/USAF/USCG", without one's rank preceding their name, unlike commissioned officers.
*Any officer in command of a ship is referred to as Captain for the period of their command or in reference to the ship, regardless of what rank they normally hold.<ref name="Vanderbilt"/><ref name="Service Etiquette"/>
*Retired military personnel may continue to be addressed by their rank at the time of their retirement. Those who held 'brevet' ranks higher than their permanent rank (permanent Army officers who held temporary rank in volunteer regiments during the American Civil War) also held this honor; though all such individuals have now perished, this usage is often seen in historical or fictional sources placed in the 1865–1900 period.<ref name="Vanderbilt"/><ref name="Service Etiquette"/>
* ''[[Hamilton v. Alabama (1964)|Hamilton v. Alabama]]'', 376 U.S. 650 (1964), is a [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] case in which the court held that an [[African Americans|African-American]] woman, [[Mary Hamilton (activist)|Mary Hamilton]], was entitled to the same courteous forms of address customarily reserved solely for whites in the [[Southern United States]],<ref name=LSAT>{{cite book | title=Barron's How to Prepare for the LSAT, Law School Admission Test | author=Bobrow, Jerry | page=587 | publisher=Barron's Educational Series | date=2005 | isbn=978-0-7641-2412-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SBuAXRPCZzYC&pg=PA587 | accessdate=July 13, 2013}}</ref> and that calling a black person by their first name in a formal context was "a form of racial discrimination".<ref>{{cite magazine | title=Call Her Miss | magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date=April 10, 1964 | accessdate=July 13, 2013 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875740,00.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050719075725/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875740,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=July 19, 2005}} {{subscription required|s}}</ref>