Practical International Data Management - Forms of Address

Definition

Forms of address, also known as honorifics or salutations, appear before or after personal names and may be indicative of:

• gender: Mr, Herr, Frau, Ms
• marital status: Miss, Mrs
• social status: Lord, Duke, Baron
• academic achievement or professional status: Dr, Professor, Mr, Diipl.-Ing.
• age: Mg, Mo, U, Ma, Daw
• formality of communication:Gospodin, Mátushka

Increasing numbers of people prefer to use no form of address.

Examples

In Japan the form of address is written after the personal name:

   Yamata sensei
   Watanabe ishi

Processing

• Don't assume that the form of address only appears before a personal name
• Don't assume that the form of address always, and only, indicates gender
• In many cultures, using forms of address that indicate marital status are regarded as archaic and insulting, and shouldn't be used
• A person may have a whole string of forms of addresses: Herr Doctor Professor Schmidt
• A single form of address may appear in different ways and in different places in the personal name string: Dr and Ph.D. for example, so a person may in one context be Dr John Smith and in another John Smith Ph.D.
• Note that forms of address may also be names. For example, Mister is a given name in the United States; Sayed/Sayed is an Arabic given name which may be translated as Mister.

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