Titles

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio.

Is it legal for me to use a title or titles besides "Mr."?

Examples I've seen in popular culture:

• Stephen Colbert refers to himself as Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A. on his show, although he is a real Doctor of Fine Arts and was knighted by HM Queen Noor of Jordan.
• There was an infamous audition on American Idol by someone who went by the name General Larry Platt.
• On an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick Star referred to himself as Mr. Dr. Prof. Patrick.
• In the Bill & Ted movies, Bill refers to himself as Bill S. Preston, Esquire.
• Some recording artists use them in stage names, such as Sir Mix-a-Lot and Dr. Dre.

Would this sort of thing be covered under the First Amendment or the Title of Nobility Clause? Would it be legal to sign my name with such a title? If I used the title "Dr." for fun, and not to mislead people into thinking I'm an actual doctor, would it be considered impersonating a doctor?

Thanks.

Is it legal for you to add a title to your name? It depends.

It is considered fraud to make a false statement of fact with knowledge that the statement is false (or with a reckless disregard for its truth or falsity) if you intend to make another or others rely on the truth of the statement and another or others do, in fact, rely on the statement and suffer damages as a result.

In the examples you gave, it is highly unlikely that anyone would believe that those you mentioned are medical doctors, generals, lawyers or, even, Sirs and, therefore, no one would rely on those titles as statements of fact. A person would not seek medical care from Dr. Dre nor would the government seek military advice from someone on American Idol who calls himself a general.

If you use, say, Esquire, after your name and someone asks you for legal advice, mistakeningly believing you are an attorney, and you fail to disclose to this person that you are not a lawyer, and this person then relies on you to make a legal decision to his detriment, you could be sued for fraud. If, however, you use the title Esquire after your name and someone asks you for legal direction and you say, "hey this is just a fake title," then if the person decides to rely on your advice, they may be stupid but you have not committed fraud. You have not misrepresented yourself to be an attorney and you have disclosed the material fact that you are not an attorney.

It is when you intend to deceive someone with a false title and they are actually deceived by this false title that you face liability for any damages that result.

There can also be a negligent misrepresentation if you can foresee that the false title you choose for yourself can result in another's credible reliance on the title as being a statement of fact. With an "innocent" misrepresentation, where a person has no intent to deceive and there was no foreseeable reason why anyone would be deceived (ie. someone relying on faulty legal advice given by an actor in his role playing a lawyer on a tv drama), then there is generally no liability, regardless of the damage that may result to the person stupid enough to take advice from a tv character.

Is it legal for me to use a title or titles besides "Mr."?

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In most cases yes, but depending on the title it may make people think far less of you. His is especially true if they find your your real academic credentials.

Of course if you sign legal documents with that title then you may be making false representations.

If you prefix your name with Dr., then that is not practicing medicine without a license. You will note that all graduates with a PhD can accurately ue that prefix, not just medical professionals. Now if you put ", MD" after your name, then it would be more likely that you would be lying about being a medical doctor.

The legality of using those title really depends on what you are doing while using those titles, such as providing medical advice or making medical pronouncements, such as "Drug X is obviously superior to treatment Y for your condition"

By adding "esquire" to the end of your name in the US, you are strongly suggesting that you are a lawyer. Be very careful about doing that and then doing anything even remotely like giving legal advice. There are strict laws about practicing law without a license the U.S.

But of course, referring to yourself as "Cleveland Rock, Esquire" in anything except a legal context is commonly thought of as puffery and a sure sign of somebody who craves attention.

See Strang V Satz
- Google Scholar

Or for a lighter read, see
Esquire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank you; that's all I needed to hear!
–His Majesty, Lieutenant Commander Cleveland T. Rock, Lord of Humans

Hahaha.

Glad we could help, Lord of Humans.

I for one would like to welcome our new overlord"

When the aliens (the space ones) land and want to be taken to our leader, we'll know who gets the honor!