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His Honour orHer Honour (American English:His Honor orHer Honor) is an honorific prefix traditionally applied to certain classes of people, in particular justices andjudges andmayors. In Australia and the United States, the prefix is also used formagistrates (spelled in the American style, "Honor"). A corruption of the term, "Hizzoner", is sometimes used to irreverently refer to mayors of larger U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or Philadelphia.[citation needed]
InAustralia, His Honour or Her Honour is used as a title for theAdministrator of the Northern Territory while in office.The Honourable is a courtesy title retained for life for a former administrator.
InEngland and Wales, it is used as a prefix forcircuit judges, e.g. His Honour Judge John Smith. It is sometimes abbreviated in writing asHHJ.[1] It was formerly used forcounty court judges. Certain British colonial judges were also entitled to the style.
InHong Kong, which retained much ofEngland's judicial tradition, it is also used as a prefix for district court judges.
InNorthern Ireland, the prefix is also used forcounty court judges.
InCanada, His Honour or Her Honour is used as a title for thelieutenant governor of aprovince while in office. The spouse of a lieutenant governor is also addressed as His or Her Honour, only while the lieutenant governor is in office.The Honourable is a courtesy title retained for life for a former lieutenant governor.
In thePhilippines, uniquely, senators and representatives in Congress during Senate or congressional inquiries and impeachment procedures, andCommission on Elections officials when they convene as provincial and national boards of canvassers in post-election canvasses where certain members of Congress are also members of the national board, are mostly addressed as Your Honor, because it was unfortunately rendered from "the Spanish term for addressing parliamentarians, and a mistake made" when Congress's predecessor, thePhilippine Legislature, abruptly changed to the use of English from "mainly Spanish in its deliberations."[2]
Formerly, this style was sometimes used by an enlisted seaman when addressing the captain of a ship, though this practice has not been common since the early Nineteenth Century.
