Nobility without a monarchy

[Gryphos]

So in my world there are a fair few democratic nations without a monarchy. What I'd like to know is if it would still be possible for people to have titles like Duke, Count, Earl etc. Since these titles are associated with feudal systems (or formally feudal systems). Also, the nations in question have never been monarchies, or if they were once it was such a long time ago that any given titles would have degraded over repeated inheritance.

 

[Graylorne]

You should look at the origins of these titles. Duke comes from dux, a Roman title describing someone in command of any army. It developed into a provincial commander and only much later into the present noble title.

Comes was the title of various Roman and Byzantian officials. The Carolingians used the title for the civic head of a territory, and only later it became hereditary and noble.

Prince (not the Royal one but the ones the French and Belgians used, and the Prince of Monaco) was also of Roman origin. It was no more than the Princeps, the chairman of the town council. It became noble after the Romans pulled back. The title of our own Prince of Orange was one of those; Orange is a town in France).

So, yes, it would be possible for those titles to develop without a monarchy. They would be hereditary positions, only the concept of nobility would probably not be the same.

 

[CupofJoe]

Simply I'd say Yes. In the UK we have nobility with no real power and a mechanism to ennoble more people for suitably wonderful achievements [winning gold medals, donating lots of money to political parties (I mean charities of course)]. The titles and terms themselves might have feudal origins but not anymore. Okay, it has been a while since any Dukes were created... recipients still seem proud enough to be called Sir or Dame. Some titles will fall by the way but some will survive and even thrive. Unless you have French revolution where a lot of titles and lines came to an end and then they went on to make more...