A Passport to Title Freedom

Why businesses need to give us the freedom to travel (and live) title-free

If you’ve ever booked a holiday abroad and found yourself stumbling over a dropdown menu asking whether you’re a Miss, Mrs., or Ms., you’re not alone. 

For many travellers, especially women and non-binary people, this seemingly harmless detail can bring an unexpected moment of pause. 

Why, in 2025, are we still asked to declare our marital status when booking a flight, a hotel, or even just a rental car?

Even more puzzling is this: your passport – arguably the most important piece of identification when travelling – contains no title at all. No Mr., Mrs., Dr., or Ms.. Just your name, date of birth, nationality, and photograph. So if official government documentation has dropped titles, why are businesses still asking for them?

Let’s unpack this contradiction, explore how different cultures approach the idea of titles, and consider what might need to change in how we view identity when travelling.

Passports and Identity: Titles Aren’t Required

A passport is a legal identity document. It’s issued by a national government and recognised internationally. Interestingly, none of the details on a passport include marital status titles. There’s a good reason for that: titles are not part of your legal identity. They don’t affect your rights, your nationality, or your ability to travel.

So why do booking forms insist on them?

The simple answer is: tradition. Many booking systems, airline databases, and customer-facing forms were designed decades ago, and they haven’t all kept up with modern views on gender and identity. Somewhere along the way, “Miss” and “Mrs.” became entrenched, and inertia has kept them in place.

But now that travel is more global than ever – and businesses are looking for ways to demonstrate inclusivity – it’s time for organisations rethink these outdated boxes.

The Marriage-Based Title System: A British Anomaly?

In the UK and many English-speaking countries, titles like Miss, Mrs., and Ms. are part of every day life. For women, these titles are often tied to marital status, a legacy of a time when a woman’s legal and social identity was directly linked to her husband.

Miss for unmarried women.
Mrs. for married women.
Ms. for those who don’t want to specify or see their status as irrelevant.

Meanwhile, men are simply Mr. regardless of whether they’re married, divorced, or single. The gender imbalance is clear. And if you identify outside the binary? You’re often left with no meaningful choice at all.

But here’s where things get even more interesting: most countries around the world don’t use marital titles at all.

Different Countries, Different Norms

In many European countries, particularly in Scandinavia, titles denoting marital status are rare or non-existent. In Sweden and Iceland, for instance, people are often referred to by their first names in both casual and professional settings, and when titles are used, they tend to be occupational (like “Doctor” or “Professor”) rather than personal.

Germany used to use Fräulein for unmarried women, but it was officially dropped from government forms in the 1970s as part of a move towards gender equality. Now, all women are simply Frau, regardless of marital status – mirroring the way Mr. is used for men.

In Japan, honorifics are common but largely gender-neutral and unrelated to marital status. In many parts of Asia, titles used in business or travel are more about respect or social hierarchy, not marriage.

In short, the notion that someone’s relationship status should be part of their public-facing identity is largely a British and American relic. And when you’re travelling the world, it starts to feel not only unnecessary, but downright outdated.

The Travel Industry’s Reluctance to Change

Given how global the travel industry is, it’s strange that so many airlines, hotel chains, and booking platforms still ask for titles. Often, the options offered are overly gendered and exclude non-binary or gender-diverse individuals. It’s not uncommon to find dropdown menus offering only Mr., Mrs., and Miss, with no Mx. or gender-neutral alternatives.

There is VERY rarely an option to leave the ‘title’ box blank. 

And again, we come back to the strange truth: these titles don’t appear on passports, so they’re not needed for identification or security. In fact, mismatched titles (e.g., booking under “Mrs.” when your ID simply says your name) can sometimes lead to confusion during check-in or visa processing – particularly if someone has changed their name due to marriage or divorce.

So why are we still being asked?

The most likely reason is convenience – or rather, the lack of incentive to update legacy systems. Changing global booking software, retraining staff, and updating databases across hundreds of countries isn’t a small task. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.

A New Perspective on Titles Abroad

Travel is one of the best ways to gain perspective on how others live, work, and define themselves. And when you travel abroad and notice that your title – whether marital or otherwise – doesn’t matter, it can be liberating.

No one at the hotel desk in Barcelona needs to know if you’re married.
 

No one checking your boarding pass in Seoul cares if you’re a Miss or Mrs.

And no one at passport control in Cape Town is going to look twice at your name and wonder what your title should be.

When seen through a global lens, it becomes increasingly clear that titles based on marriage are unnecessary relics. They reflect a time when a woman’s identity was expected to change based on her relationship to a man. In 2025, many of us reject that idea entirely.

So Why Do Businesses Still Ask?

This brings us back to the central question: if passports – the gold standard of international ID – don’t use titles, why do businesses still ask for them?

It’s time for industries, particularly in travel and hospitality, to acknowledge that:

1. Titles are not legally required.
2. They often introduce confusion and discomfort, not clarity.
3. They fail to reflect modern, inclusive understandings of gender and identity.

Updating systems to either drop titles entirely or allow people to opt out would be a small but significant step toward respecting personal identity. For those who value titles, they can remain as an option – not a requirement.

The Future: Travel Without Labels

As the world grows more interconnected, and as narratives on gender and identity continue to evolve, the systems we use should evolve too. Booking a flight or hotel room shouldn’t require you to choose a label that doesn’t reflect who you are – or worse, one that ties your identity to someone else’s.

Next time you see that dropdown asking you to choose Miss, Mrs., or Ms., consider: is this really necessary? Why is this still the norm? And how would it feel to travel in a world where we are seen simply as who we are – no prefixes required?

GoTitleFree™ has been celebrating businesses who have gone ‘title free’ for seven years.

We have created toolkits for businesses to use who want to explore the various ways to ensure gender inclusive language in customer service and communication practices.

We also have a petition for any person who wishes to add their name to our list of supporters.

Thank you to the many thousands of people who have already signed and supported!

Keep going title free.

Stella Sutcliffe 

xx