# Gender-neutral royal titles?



## Ireth

One of the fantasy worlds I've created is a vaguely medieval society which nonetheless has a much greater awareness and acceptance of non-binary, non-cisgender and non-straight people and pairings than many of our world's cultures did at the time. This is so because the human race was created by demigod-like dragons, who also have a large number of the aforementioned.

The MC of the story is a cisgender, asexual girl from modern Earth who is whisked away to the fantasy world via a magic portal she accidentally creates. She initially befriends an MtF transgender dragoness before getting pulled into human affairs and encountering the royals of the kingdom. The dragoness uses the human language of that world to speak with the MC, which is rendered as English due to magical Translation Convention. (This is also lampshaded in-story by the MC, who notices that people's mouth movements don't match up with the words she hears them speak, and vice-versa.)

Now, in a society with so many non-cis/het/etc. individuals, I would logically expect their language to have a non-gendered equivalent of such gendered titles as king, queen, prince, princess, etc. I've come up with the term "princet" for a gender-neutral heir to the throne, but others are not coming so easily to mind. Nor do I know how that would or should factor into the Translation Convention trope. I don't really want to use generic terms like "Monarch" and "Heir", either. Any thoughts on how I should handle this?


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## Reaver

That's a tough one. There's bound to be topics or ideas regarding this dilemma on the interwebs. Good luck friend Ireth!


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## Svrtnsse

Maybe they titles could be named after their symbols of office? Like if the ruler of the country wears a crown, then the title would be Crown?
You can probably come up with better symbols and names, but it may be a source of inspiration?


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## Ireth

I like that symbol idea, Svrt. I'll see what I can come up with.


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## Caged Maiden

I like this idea and though I've never played with it personally, I'm kinda dorky in that I love history and honorifics and terms of address.  I am happy to give you some words, but you'd have to find ways of making them gender-neutral.

Maybe instead of Baron or Baroness, you could call the person the "Barony" meaning the title, but not specifically the land itself?  As in, "The barony (or baronie/ baronist/ etc.) sat at the table, ready for her breakfast."

Duchy/ Duchess/ Duke is another you could use in a similar fashion and with alternate spellings.

Crown also works, as does "coronet".

non gender specific words like: secretary, chief, minister, counselor, chancellor, warden, warder, sovereign (and attach OF WHATEVER to any of those).

Minister of WHATEVER (London/ Defense/ Bavaria/ the Mage Council) for example, could mean either a man or woman, or something in between.  I think choosing those kinds of titles would also go a step further to denote not only a title but also their occupation or capacity as a leader, signifying what they are the head of.  

Best wishes.  I could come up with stuff all day, but i hope this gets you started anyway.


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## valiant12

Sovereign is gender neutral. Or there word for king is gender neutral, but the magik translation translate is as king as the closest equivalent in english.
You can use the name of the kingdom as the title of the ruler.


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## glutton

High One
Most High
Hand of God/Heaven/etc.
Over-something
Decider
Imperial
Majestor (stolen from Marvel comics, although there is a female form 'Majestrix' there it sounds like it can be gender neutral)
First of Firsts


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## Bropocalypse

You may consider "noble," "regal," or other adjectives. A title is a TYPE of adjective(more or less) so you may start with those. You generally find more gender-neutral things of this type when it comes to specific duties.
You may also consider the fact that some words have lost the potency of their engendered associations over time, as with 'lord,' Or go more obscure and find old words whose meanings have changed over time, such as 'tyrant.' (I don't recall exactly where, but I think I once saw some setting where dragon leaders used 'tyrant.'[Oh wait, no, it wasn't a dragon, it was the Hive Tyrants from Warhammer 40k. Still, though.])
If you _really_ want to get creative, you may do some research on the etymologies of certain title-centered words and derive a new word from those. For example, 'king' is probably derived from the proto-germanic word 'kuningaz,' meaning "someone of the family." the 'kun' portion of that shares the same ancestor as 'genus' from latin, while the '-ingaz' comes from a suffix meaning 'belonging to' or 'as the result of' something. It formed in turn into the modern english suffix '-ing' which is now used as a gerund (that is to say, an action to be carried out) or as an uncountable quantity of an item, like 'roofing.'
But I guess if you want to go about deriving and inventing terms like that, you'd have to find a way to make it clear to the reader what it is you're up to.
Sorry, this wasn't terribly helpful, after all.


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## KC Trae Becker

Judge
First (High, Over) Parent
Chief (Doesn't seem specific to me. Chieftoness is too much of a mouthful to be taken seriously.)
Leader
Ruler

I'll post more if I think of any.


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## DeathtoTrite

This may not fit with your world, but a lot of female rulers in history would just use the male version, like female Egyptian pharaohs. There was a saying that "Elizabeth was king, and now James is queen" (admittedly, this was probably a homophobic reference).


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## Ireth

DeathtoTrite said:


> This may not fit with your world, but a lot of female rulers in history would just use the male version, like female Egyptian pharaohs. There was a saying that "Elizabeth was king, and now James is queen" (admittedly, this was probably a homophobic reference).



Yeah, I don't think that would fit. It sort of smacks of patriarchy to me, and I'm going for a more equal society. Thanks for the suggestion, though. ^^


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## Reaver

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet but what about the term 'Highborne" ? The word itself has many connotations. It could be self-appointed by the ruling class (if they see themselves appointed by what deity (or deities) they believe in) or appointed by a mandate of the masses.


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## DMThaane

Ireth said:


> Yeah, I don't think that would fit. It sort of smacks of patriarchy to me, and I'm going for a more equal society. Thanks for the suggestion, though. ^^



A bit unfair on the word 'king' there. King derives from the Old English 'cyning' which appears to derive from Proto-Germanic 'kuningaz' which wiktionary defines as 'someone of the family' and Wikipedia suggests 'scion of the kin.' All of these were used to describe tribal leaders. The argument could be made that its only strongly associated with men because almost all tribal leaders were men. If our society was truly equal and had always been truly equal the word 'king' would still exist and still mean the same thing, we simply wouldn't have 'queen' (which appears to derive from a Proto-Indo-European word for 'woman').

Of course the argument is somewhat academic but still worth considering. For alternatives I always tend towards the Latin myself. Sovereign, Imperator, Potentate, Regnum, Caesar (a bit hard to justify in world without Julius Caesar). Then there's the 'invent your own' approach where you pick anything that sounds 'regal' enough or derive it from existing words. You could have the Vocus Popular (the one who speaks with the people's voice) or the Rexarch (although Latin and Greek purist may hate you for that one).


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## DeathtoTrite

DMThaane said:


> (although Latin and Greek purist may hate you for that one).



I may have winced at this a bit. Or a lot. 

Arma Virumque Cano!


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## Mectojic

If you want a sense of dominance, then something like Overlord would work. Although this doesn't match up if you want them to be of a royal family.
If you want a royal family name, I can suggest something with 'scion'. For example, "Imperial Scion", "Crown Scion".


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## The_Murky_Night

I believe 'Consul' is gender neutral, but is more of an appointed title than it is a royal one. In my world, the land of Torne is a Consulate led by the elected Consul, a position which has been held by both men and women. 

If you can not think of one, make one up!  I've made up the title 'Khassar', which has it's origins in the Latin 'Caesar' (which inspired many other royal titles like Kaiser and Czar)


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## PepperminPatti

I have a non-binary royal child in my latest book and I asked my trans friend and they said that princex would work


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## TheKillerBs

What's the problem with generic titles?


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## Ireth

TheKillerBs said:


> What's the problem with generic titles?



Mostly it's because one of my close friends is writing a similarly non-patriarchal world, and she uses generic terms like "Monarch" and "Heir", so I kind of want to veer away from that. Especially since we discuss our stories with each other fairly often.


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## TheKillerBs

Ireth said:


> Mostly it's because one of my close friends is writing a similarly non-patriarchal world, and she uses generic terms like "Monarch" and "Heir", so I kind of want to veer away from that. Especially since we discuss our stories with each other fairly often.



Okay, fair


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## elemtilas

Ireth said:


> Mostly it's because one of my close friends is writing a similarly non-patriarchal world, and she uses generic terms like "Monarch" and "Heir", so I kind of want to veer away from that. Especially since we discuss our stories with each other fairly often.



Just so long as you also veer away from horrific perversions of English like "princex"! YUK! 

I too would expect that the native language(s) of the peoples in this world would have normal titles for its rulers that recognise the local society's slant on gender. I'd suggest, if it's not now too late!, just making and using such words. So long as it is somehow made clear that, functionally, a _jarda_ and a _warkun_ are the same as a monarch as far as role and dignity go but are distinct as far as gender are concerned, then why not just refer to "the jarda of Arcutre" or "warkun Zibilus"?



> "I love you. I would rather be in exile with you, than Queen without you."
> ~ LÃ­adan



I wonder how many Liadans there are out there in the Land of Story...

I have some parts of a story whose main character is Liadan. I've a cousin who wrote a beautiful story (Birds of Ale'a) whose main character is Liadan. And now I come across this story with a character called Liadan! Pretty nifty, that!


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## Yzjdriel

"Your Majesty" seems entirely gender agnostic, though I would venture to guess that everyone would know the sex and gender of their Sovereign.

Alternatively, you can just refuse to give a care and go the route of the Dragons in The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and just call the monarch "King" regardless of gender.


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## SMAndy85

There's an anime I watch, called Fate: Stay Night. The title isn't great, but it's got a decent referece for this. If you know it, but haven't seen it and want to, stop reading now because SPOILERS!

One of the main characters, referred to by the name "Saber" is a female knight in appearance, and is totally kickass. Later on, you discover that she's actually King Arthur. She is called King because the legend states "Whomsoever draws the sword from the stone shall become King." and they took it literally.

In history, I always think that titles for the female part (duchess, princess etc) is just the male version with an alteration. If you google "Define Prince" it comes back with "the son of a monarch". Who is to say you couldn't just change that to the "child of a monarch" and leave it there?

Equally, the synonyms has "dynast" as an option. That sounds very gender neutral! Perhaps you could get some ideas for other titles the same way.


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## Viorp

If I were you I'd to a barebones conlang.

Make up sounds + phonotactics. 
With that you can make realistic words.
If you also use it to name places it will sounds natural.

Now invent names for rulers like example:

King/Queen - Selkir
Emperor/Empress - Kulnalkir
Fudal Lord (male+female) - Inelkir


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## Chekaman

First Citizen. That would be a good gender neutral title.


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## elemtilas

Chekaman said:


> First Citizen. That would be a good gender neutral title.



Right. First Citizen = Princeps = Prince.


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## Chekaman

Princess also came from Princeps.


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## DeathtoTrite

A few ideas-

Canon, Theurgist, Oracle, Hierarch, Hierophant: maybe a bit of a religious flavor
Magister/ Magistrate 
Seneschal
Caesar (or selected variant. The cognomen weren't gender specific iirc)
Despot/ Autocrat (These have a very negative connotation that wasn't always the case. Russian tsars would adopt "autocrats of all Russia" for added imperial flavor)
Qadi
Volvi
Lawspeaker
Yabgu
Viceroy

A few of these might not be truly gender-neutral but rely on western ignorance (by which I mean my own). Many are shamelessly stolen from-

Honorary titles - Crusader Kings II Wiki


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## Surad

From what I understand, Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt wasn't a reference to a person, but a place. Pharaoh was like 'the house of the king' or something. So it could easily translate to just 'house of royalty' which is why female pharoahs like Nefertiti were still called Pharaohs even though most Pharaohs were men.


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## skip.knox

It may be worth pointing out that king itself is not exactly male in origin.
Online Etymology Dictionary
as the article says, it's complicated.
OTOH, queen is specifically female in origin
Online Etymology Dictionary
It's also worth pointing out that Queen Jadwiga of Poland was technically King Jadwiga of Poland. So there's that.

But gender neutral? Almost no historical words are gender neutral. If I were going for that, I'd make up words.


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## Daelhar

You could always invent words for the titles. If it's a fantasy book, you could randomly create ones, or make a combination of words and titles for that position. Hoped this helped!


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## QuingHyppolita

Ireth said:


> One of the fantasy worlds I've created is a vaguely medieval society which nonetheless has a much greater awareness and acceptance of non-binary, non-cisgender and non-straight people and pairings than many of our world's cultures did at the time. This is so because the human race was created by demigod-like dragons, who also have a large number of the aforementioned.
> 
> The MC of the story is a cisgender, asexual girl from modern Earth who is whisked away to the fantasy world via a magic portal she accidentally creates. She initially befriends an MtF transgender dragoness before getting pulled into human affairs and encountering the royals of the kingdom. The dragoness uses the human language of that world to speak with the MC, which is rendered as English due to magical Translation Convention. (This is also lampshaded in-story by the MC, who notices that people's mouth movements don't match up with the words she hears them speak, and vice-versa.)
> 
> Now, in a society with so many non-cis/het/etc. individuals, I would logically expect their language to have a non-gendered equivalent of such gendered titles as king, queen, prince, princess, etc. I've come up with the term "princet" for a gender-neutral heir to the throne, but others are not coming so easily to mind. Nor do I know how that would or should factor into the Translation Convention trope. I don't really want to use generic terms like "Monarch" and "Heir", either. Any thoughts on how I should handle this?


What about QUING as a non binary queen/king


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## Nirak

Armiger is a cool way of saying lord/lady - it means one who has a right to display heraldry.


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## Miles Lacey

I simply refer to the person who rules as Emperor or Empress in my WIP as the Monarch.


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## D. Gray Warrior

Maybe take a look at Japanese honorifics. The honorific "san" appears gender neutral, so maybe you could have a system similar to Japanese but where all of the honorifics are gender neutral.


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## Queshire

I've used Crown as a title, though the guy with it is cis. I've also used Divine of X instead of God/Goddess of X for my nonbinary death divine.


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## Nighty_Knight

Queshire said:


> I've used Crown as a title, though the guy with it is cis. I've also used Divine of X instead of God/Goddess of X for my nonbinary death divine.


Crown of X, (such as Crown of Aragon or Crown of Castile) works great for a sovereign ruler. Imo.


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## Cu Mara

High Ruler seems to say it quite literally. 
As for the heir; 1st in Line or (when shortened) the “First”. 
Just a thought.


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## Josie

For Prince/Princess there's Prinx or Prinxette that my friend came up with
For Queen/King I use Quing which I made up


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## S J Lee

Start saying "the throne / the crown..."?

In English, female pharaohs are just called pharaohs....
hatshepsut - Bing 
Hatshepsut (/ h æ t ˈ ʃ ɛ p s ʊ t /; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: ḥꜣt-šps.wt "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt.She was the second historically-confirmed female pharaoh, the first being Sobekneferu. 

Chief?
Ruler?
Dictator? eg, dictatrix sounds silly... pompous fake Latin... doubt the Romans ever used that word
Mob boss... no female version

EG, The Guardian now just calls female actors "actors". "Actress" is dying....


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## D. Gray Warrior

Also, it seems a monarch (both male and female) are sometimes referred to as "Sovereign." So, the Sovereign could just be a monarchical title that does not specify gender.

Don't quote me on this, but I think in some countries "duke" can be gender neutral in that it can be a man or woman who rules a duchy, while "duchess" is a woman married to a duke.


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