Mrs, Miss or Ms

Me neither.

PS - Re the OP - I have never met any feminists that militant!

I am going back to mine, after many years divorced under a different name (a freedom name!).
I didn't used to like it, but now I know about my family history and I am proud of them.

have been both Miss and Mrs. and now Ms for many years; seems only logical . Also reverted to maiden name (what a daft expression that is) many years back, after end of final disastrous partnership.

I like to be addressed as Ma'am. Puts feet up and adjusts crown

I mean if you were calling a child say for example David Stephen Smith call him that......

If you want him to be known as Stephen David Smith , DO IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND !!

SIMPLE ISN'T IT???????

for the record my DH is not called either David or Stephen

Mad isn't it Gagagran?

My DH was in hospital and they had his "real" name written above his bed with "to be known as XXXX" written underneath !

I think it started because his first name was the same as his fathers and became confused with his (and now mine) very long winded stupid surname.

Same with my DH gillybob . He's always used his second Christian name but when in hospital, at GP's etc they insist on using his first name - and he answers to that too!

My DH has never called himself by his first Christian name. Just saying.

bloody confusing when people call out his real first name and he ignores it

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Ann, lots of people in the UK have first names that they don't use informally, but must do for official forms, is it a problem?

Like michellhargreaves I just give my name and surname. My problem is that my parents for reasons best known to themselves gave both myself and my brother first names which they did not use. Anything official I am called by my first name and I'm sick of reminding doctors dentists etc that I'm known by my second name. I know that they are supposed to mark it on my records but they can't seem to get their heads around it.

I wish the hell I had stuck with my maiden name. I have been married 3 times and have changed my name too many times !

My current surname (actually the one I have had the longest of all) is such a pain in the neck. Whenever I say it I have to give a full explaination afterwards.........

Mrs Gillybob XXXXXXXXXX All one word, no hyphen.

It's quite a mouthfull.

I usually just give my name and surname. Supply Mrs if asked!

My Iranian refugee students didn't think it was respectful to address me by my forename, nor could they get their heads round Ms. So they agreed among themselves to call me Mrs + forename.

I would use the term Ms if I felt like it. I have no problems with choosing whatever title I wish to be known by. The only issue I have is with the fact that it is, in effect, a sort of non-word. It looks like an abbreviation, like Mr and Mrs but, unlike them, it's not actually short for anything. I almost feel I want to invent the word it's an abbreviation of . Any ideas anyone?

How can I be Miss or Mrs when I have been married but am divorced? That's where Ms comes in for me.

You can be proud Shpat70,
Us Real women can be what ever we want to be,.
We don't need leaders,we aren't sheep.

Mx is usually pronounced mix or mux. I have one friend who uses Mx because they don't identify as male or female.

Mx could lead to confusion, Minnie tha Mx?!

Think overall I'm with the Society of Friends and in favour of dropping all titles. Intrigued by Mx, how is it pronounced? I'm increasing short: 4'10" and going down steadily. Does that make me Little Mx?!

What happens when you are the daughter of a two barrelled surname, do you have three surnames? Then four when a granddaughter marries. I cannot understand why you cannot take husband's surname it doesn't make you less of a liberated woman. You could if you wish retain you original surname for work purposes. So much easier for any children that come along. I am a widow but kept my surname for practical reasons and because I wanted to as I am used to it.

I have been Mrs for nearly 50 years and I cannot see the need for Ms. It seems such a non title. Why can't we be proud of being Miss or Mrs.
I'm sure continental women are satisfied with Mademoiselle or Madam, for example.i have just asked a Spanish friend and she agrees.

I've had some feedback from female friends who are in relationships with other females.

One always uses Dr (that's cheating).
One uses Dr whenever possible, otherwise Ms.
One refuses whenever possible as she is a Quaker, but uses Ms if necessary. She and her prospective wife intend to continue to be Ms.

A young man I rather fancy addresses all older women apart from his mother as Auntie.

I wonder if in time all of these titles will fade into obscurity? If you think back a hundred years or so it was fairly 'normal' for the term 'cousin' to be used as a form of address, e.g. "Good morning Cousin Elizabeth, you are looking well". Brother and Sister were also once used as forms of address, perhaps not followed by the given name, but as a stand alone. These uses have long since disappeared.

More recently I have noticed increasingly that families are dropping the terms 'Aunt' and 'Uncle' as forms of address. In my immediate family the GC tend to use just the first names when talking to their aunts and uncles; when my children were little they dropped these titles in their mid-teens. My DH and I, on the other hand, used the formal address Aunt(y) and Uncle well into adulthood.