Honoursstyle

Honoursstyle refers to the conventions used when presenting individuals who have received official honours, decorations, or awards in written form. The term covers how courtesy titles and honourifics are used (for example Sir, Dame, Lord, Lady) and how post-nominal letters indicating orders or medals are displayed after a name. Practices vary by country, institution, and publication, but most systems share a concern for clarity, formality, and precedence. Academic degrees are typically treated separately and may follow different styling rules.

In Commonwealth and many European contexts, recipients may be addressed with a title appropriate to their award and, in formal writing, followed by post-nominal letters such as MBE, OBE, CBE, KCVO, etc. The post-nominals are usually ordered by the rank of the honour, with higher honours listed before lower ones, and punctuation and spacing standards set by the relevant style guide. The use of a title, such as Sir or Dame, is typically limited to knighthoods and certain orders, and is usually reserved for the individual in formal contexts.

Editorial use varies: some outlets place the title before the name and the post-nominals after, e.g., Sir John Doe, KBE, CVO; others may omit titles in shorter biographical notes. In government or royal contexts, the full honours style is often mandated by official guidance; in journalism, academia, and publishing, house styles govern the sequence, punctuation, and capitalization of honours.

Because practices differ by jurisdiction and organization, there is no universal honoursstyle; it functions as a practical guide for biographers, editors, and journalists to represent recognitions consistently while respecting official conventions and local norms.