Better wording for "Mr" and "Ms" on a registration form

Question

We a developing a Web application. My co-worker, who is a native German speaker, created the following registration form. I assume that he checked a dictionary for the translation of Anrede, found title and address as the options. We already have a field for title which takes an academic title such as Dr. (our software is used primarily by academic researchers), so he chose "Address".

To me, it's rather confusing on a registration form, where a user's first thought is "Do they want me to tell them where I live?". And if one reads the hint to the right, "Name and affiliation will be displayed as address title first name last name", without noticing the field name first, it's even more confusing.

I'll change Title to Academic title, but this still leaves me with the problem of what to call the "Mr/Ms" option. Any ideas?

Answer 1

For most dialects of English, if not all, this form gives the wrong results. English custom is not like German, where a form of address like Ing. Dr. Hermann Koenig is possible.

Mr, Mrs, Dr, Prof are all treated as titles in forms such as this, and generally they are mutually exclusive. There are a few which can be combined: Revd and Sir for example.

Many forms use a single drop-down list of alternatives, some quite exhaustive. Most just give Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, Dr; others might add Prof, Rev, Sir. Some just allow users to write in their own (like your text entry box), which also allows odd combinations like Revd Canon Prof Sir George Dixon.

Do bear in mind that in many jurisdictions you may only collect the data you need. If you don't need to know whether someone is male or female (apart from addressing them as Mr/Mrs) then don't ask for that. That is, if you're happy simply addressing someone as Dr Leslie King without knowing what sex they are, don't ask for that information. This may seem irrelevant to a question about English forms of address, but if that's what your Mr/Mrs radio-button choice is for, it becomes relevant. If you do need that information, then that should be labelled Gender and offer choices Male/Female.

Answer 2

In my company's sytems it is often labelled as the salutation. I prefer honorific (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific), though I suspect many users would not understand the term.

Answer 3

In the US, at least, some people consider using a non-earned title like Mr/Ms to be unnecessary, if not actually rude, so I would suggest leaving it off. Anyone who wants to use Mr/Ms can include it in the title field, e.g. "Ms Dr".