People do that? I’ve never encountered someone who wanted to be called “Lawyer Smith”.
Each of the several (American) universities I’ve been familiar with had a different culture when it came to use of honorifics. Some preferred Dr., some Prof., and in one the culture was that both teachers and students should refer to one another using Mr/Ms. For myself, I don’t much care what students call me, but prefer Prof. over Dr. if pressed. Anybody other than a student usually just uses my first name. I’m currently an administrator, so some people use my position’s title as an honorific. Outside the university, people rarely refer to me using an honorific and few of them know that I have a PhD, so it’s usually Mr., and I have no desire to “correct” them.
There was an interesting episode when the women in my department asked that the nameplates on their doors use “Dr. Soandso” rather than just their names as had been the practice. It seems that students tended to assume that they did not have PhDs and were adjuncts, and gave them less respect than they gave male instructors, who they assumed did have PhDs even when they didn’t.
Finally, I’m reminded of a quote from Miss Manners I’ve posted before, discussing the use of Dr in academia: “Miss Manners’ own dear father, who would never allow himself to be addressed as doctor, used to say that a Ph.D. was like a nose—you don’t make a fuss about having one because you assume that everyone does; it’s only when you don’t have one that is conspicuous.”
Sadly, yes. They insist on being called “Attorney,” as in, “Attorney Jones is out of the office at the moment; would you like his voicemail?”
I’ve even been stealth corrected, as in, “I’ll just call Mr. Jones later.” “ATTORNEY Jones won’t be in until Wendesday, sir.”
Religious personnel: Should always get an honorific, no matter whether they are “on the job” or not. And it should supersede any secular honorific. I went to a Jesuit college and knew a lot of professors who were always priests–they always were referred to as “Father Lastname”, not “Professor Lastname”. If a priest wanted to be known as “Father Firstname”, I’d allow that but I would never call them “Mr.” even if they asked me to.
Doctors/Professors/Attorneys: Use their honorifics in professional/work settings, not in private settings.
Politicians: Never met anyone higher than a state legislator, and just called them “Mr.”. I might call a congressman/cabinet member/ambassador by their title, would probably call a governor by their title, and on the tiny chance I meet the VP/Prez would use their title.
I used to work in a hospital, on the admin side (of which there were way too many of us). A lot of the people I worked with had lots of initials after their name, Fellow Of This, Fellow of That, PhD in public health. Of all these people with their advanced degrees, only one insisted that he be called Dr. In the context of the hospital setting that seemed like an extremely bad idea because (1) you could get the idea, it being a hospital, that he was a medical doctor or (2) you could get the idea that he was such a bad medical doctor that he went into administration for the protection of the patients.
Meanwhile, on the clinical side, there were people with PhDs in nursing. They didn’t get to be called doctors, either.
Okay, that’s just weird.
But then, I find the whole “Esquire” thing weird too. We don’t use that in Canada.
I had a professor in college who was going for his doctorate but did not have it yet. I don’t remember what we called him then (professor lastname I think).
He got his doctorate. I now see him annually (at a gaming convention). I call him Dr firstname (so do other folks).
At school my teachers were Dr lastname or professor lastname.
Brian