Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms.

On this page

• Definitions and contexts for use
  • Mr.
  • Mrs.
  • Miss
  • Ms.
• Plural forms
  • Naming two or more people with the same title and different last names
  • Naming two or more people with the same title and last name
• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Spacing
• Additional information

Definitions and contexts for use

The titles Mr., Mrs., Miss and Ms. are the most commonly used courtesy titles in English. The guidelines below explain the meanings of these courtesy titles and the contexts in which they are used.

Note: These traditional courtesy titles are gendered; that is, they express a masculine or feminine gender. Persons with a non-binary gender identity may not be comfortable with one of these gendered courtesy titles. When speaking or writing to or about these persons, we must be careful to respect their preferences. For more information, see the section Gender-inclusive courtesy titles in the article Gender-inclusive writing: Guidelines for writing to or about non-binary individuals.

Mr.

The title Mr. (pronounced MISS-ter) is the abbreviation for the term mister and is traditionally used in front of a man’s name. Mr. can be used before a full name or before a last name only:

• Mr. Alan K. Grantham
• Mr. Grantham

Note that it’s the abbreviation rather than the long form that is normally used before the name: Mr. Grantham [not Mister Grantham].

However, the long form mister can be used without a name, in direct address:

• Hey, mister, you forgot your change!

The abbreviated title Mr. can also be used before a position title as a style of address:

• Mr. Speaker (to address a male speaker of the House of Commons)
• Mr. Chairman (to address the male chair of a committee)
• Mr. President (to address a man holding the political office of president in certain countries)

Mrs.

The title Mrs. (pronounced MISS-uz) is traditionally used in front of a woman’s name to indicate that she is (or was once) married.

The title may be used before a married woman’s last name (whether her maiden name or her married name) or before her full name.

• Example for a married woman who kept her maiden name:
  • Mrs. Grant [maiden name]
  • Mrs. Cheryl Grant
• Example for a married woman who took her husband’s last name:
  • Mrs. Johnson [married name]
  • Mrs. Cheryl Johnson

A married woman may also choose to use the title Mrs. with her husband’s full name (although this style is much less common today):

• Mrs. Gregory Johnson

Miss

The title Miss is used before the full name or last name of a girl or an unmarried woman:

• Miss Anjali Khan
• Miss Khan

However, for adult single women, the title Ms. (see below) is more usual.

Ms.

The title Ms. (pronounced MIZZ) has been widely used in North America since the 1970s as a neutral alternative to Mrs. and Miss, and is now the title preferred by many women, both married and single. It may be used before a woman’s full name or before her last name only:

• Ms. Rivka Abrams
• Ms. Abrams

Since Ms. gives no indication of marital status, it can be used with the name of any woman (unless the woman has indicated that she prefers another title). For that reason, Ms. has become the default title for a woman whose marital status or preferred title is unknown.

Plural forms

The table below shows the plural forms for the above courtesy titles.

The guidelines below explain the contexts in which plural titles are used.

Naming two or more people with the same title and different last names

When naming more than one person, you don’t always need to use the plural courtesy titles shown in the table above. With a list of only two or three names, you can simply use the singular courtesy title before each name:

• Mrs. Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock and Mrs. White were all present at the party.

However, in formal writing, with a list of names longer than three, it’s better to use the plural form of the courtesy title. The plural form is used once, at the beginning of the list of names:

• Messrs. Hamilton, Tremblay, Niemi and Clarke addressed the gathering.
• The chair introduced Mmes. Thorington, Warner, Ricci and Sigurdson.
• Mses. Jacobson, Kaminski, Roberge and McGill founded the company.

Naming two or more people with the same title and last name

You may sometimes need to name two or more persons with the same courtesy title and the same last name (two or more sisters, for example). In that case, you have various options, depending on the level of formality required.

In both formal and informal contexts, with only two or three names, you can put a singular title in front of the full name of each person:

• Miss Anne Bennett and Miss Caroline Bennett testified at the inquest.

In formal contexts, you can use a plural title with the last name:

• The Misses Bennett testified at the inquest.

In less formal contexts, it’s acceptable to pluralize the last name itself rather than the title:

• The Miss Bennetts entertained us with a duet.

Note that in the last two examples, a definite article is required before the title. However, no definite article is required when the full names are listed separately (as in the first example above).

Capitalization

The titles Mr., Mrs. and Ms., along with their plural forms, are always capitalized:

• I spoke with Mr. and Mrs. Makeba about the upcoming seminar.
• Have you read Ms. Atwood’s latest novel?
• The auditor praised the work of Mses. Latimer, Schwarz, Dobrowsky and Tanaka.

When used before a personal name, the title Miss and its plural form are always capitalized:

• The officer took down Miss Romano’s account of the incident.
• The Misses Bennett attended the hearing.

However, the title miss is usually in lower case when it is used alone, as in direct address:

• Can you help me, miss?

Punctuation

In North America, the courtesy titles Mr., Mrs. and Ms., along with their plural forms, end with a period. (In British English, the period is usually omitted.)

However, no period is used after the titles Miss and Misses, since they’re not abbreviations.

Spacing

A non-breaking space should be used between the courtesy title and the name, so that the title and name are not separated at the end of a line.

• Correct: After the screening, I was able to speak with Ms. Cheechoo, the director of the film.
• Incorrect: After the screening, I was able to speak with Ms.
  Cheechoo, the director of the film.

Additional information

• Correspondence and addresses – Guidelines and resources
• Courtesy titles
• Gender-inclusive writing: Guidelines for writing to or about non-binary individuals
• Gender-inclusive writing: Letters and emails
• Business letters: Inside address
• Business letters: Salutation
• Business letters: Signature block