# Usage of "Your Excellency" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023 "2005-05-23T01:08:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/1 "2005-05-23T01:08:05Z")
In historical fiction I sometimes encounter “Your Excellency” or “His Excellency” as a form of address or referral to the president, prime minister, or other nonroyal chief executive of a nation-state, or the governor of a province. It was applied to President Lincoln a couple of times in the TV adaptation of Gore Vidal’s _Lincoln._ And, of course, to Rufus T. Firefly in _Duck Soup!_🙂 (In C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novel, _The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,_ the slovenly governor of the Lone Islands uses the humbler title of “His Sufficiency.”) 1. When was the first recorded usage of “Your Excellency”? 2. How did the form originate? 3. When did it pass out of usage? 4. Is it still in use anywhere? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/2 "2005-05-23T01:24:08Z")
I’m not sure of the answers to questions 1-3, but \*His/Her Excellency \* is still the formal title accorded to the various vice-regal representatives in Australia, namely the Governor-General of the Commonwealth and the Governors of the states. I imagine that the same applies for the Canadian Governor-General. I’m not sure about the provincial vice-regal repesentatives. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/3 "2005-05-23T02:21:59Z")
Our GovGen is Her Excellency. LtGovs are His/Her Honour. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/4 "2005-05-23T02:31:40Z")
HE is also accorded to the Governor-General of New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/5 "2005-05-23T02:31:44Z")
When in doubt, use ‘Your Excellency.’ It is rarely wrong when addressing senior officials and always welcomed. He is a bishop, she is an ambassador, they are earls. Just call them all ‘Your Excellency.’ The earls will smile, but nobody will be offended. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/6 "2005-05-23T03:38:58Z")
New England governors have to style of _Excellency_, but they rarely use it. The President of the United States isn’t styled _Excellency_ domestically. In foreign countries and at the UN he (hopefully she soon) is styled _Excellency_. Letters of credence use it too. In the past _Excellency_ may have been used as a gesture of respect, but it never had official status. In 1789 when the 1st Congress was debating the President’s style (they came up things like _Elective Majesty_ & _Patriotic Higness_) Washington decided that he wanted to be addressed simply as _Mr President_ and ended the debate. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/7 "2005-05-23T04:43:54Z")
It goes back to the medieval period. Just about all _nobility_ was “your Excellency”. (Dukes are “Your Grace’, but Dukes started out as bothers to the King, and are thus 'royalty”). ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/8 "2005-05-23T08:40:37Z")
Here’s a style guide: > **[Global Industry Market Sizing - NationMaster](https://www.nationmaster.com/)** > > Looking for country statistics? NationMaster gives access to market sizing and trends across 300 industry verticals and a global coverage. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@matt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/9 "2005-05-23T09:17:22Z")
If you join Amnesty International, you get to write to all sorts of people who like to be adressed as “Your Excellency”. Colonel Gaddafi is one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/10 "2005-05-24T05:06:00Z")
Forgot to mention - the reason for the difference in Canada is that the Gov Gen is appointed directly by the Queen and is her direct representative at the federal level. The LtGovs are appointed by the GovGen, and are not Her Majesty’s direct represenatives, hence “Honour” not “Excellency”. My understanding is that in Australia the state governors are appointed directly by the Queen and are her direct reps, so I assume that’s why they get “Excellency.” ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usage-of-your-excellency/305023/11 "2005-05-24T05:24:31Z")
> [@Northern Piper](#): > > My understanding is that in Australia the state governors are appointed directly by the Queen and are her direct reps, so I assume that’s why they get “Excellency.” That’s basically it. The state governors are the Queen’s representatives in each state. They’re appointed directly by the Queen, on the advice of the state Premier. The state governors perform all of the same functions within their own state that the Governor-General does at the federal level: give the royal assent to bills; commission the leader of the majority party to form a government after each state election etc. By convention the longest serving state governor fulfils the role of Administrator of the Commonwealth when the office of Governor-General is vacant (as it was in 2003 after the resignation of then GG, Peter Hollingworth). In 1999, at the time of the referendum on whether Australia should become a republic, there was quite a bit of interesting constitutional discussion about the role of the state governors - and especially what would happen to them if the Commonwealth chose to become a republic while individual states decided to remain as “monarchies”.