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AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
Post-nominal Honours in Alphabetical Order
See also Postnominal Honours in Order of Precedence
Have you ever seen someone's name with a string of letters/abbreviations after it and wondered what they meant? Most people recognize that MD stands for Medical Doctor and CPA means Certified Public Accountant. Those are called post-nominals and consist of abbreviations or initials to indicate that the individual holds a position, office or honour.
Post-nominals are written without periods. If a person has more than one, a comma is inserted between them. When there are several post-nominals after someone's name, honours are listed first in descending order of precedence, followed by degrees and memberships of learned societies in ascending order.
Order of Australia (OAM, AM, AO, AC)
Only the highest Order of Australia award a person receives is used for their post-nominal. This means a person
receiving the OAM, AM and AC is addressed as Jane Smith AC not Jane Smith OAM AM AC.
Tip ... mouse over words in table willturn on highlighting
Post-nominal initials associated with honours granted by the Sovereign take precedence over other post-nominal initials. The special nature of the Victoria Cross (VC), the George Cross (GC) and the Cross of Valour (CV) requires their post-nominals to come before all others. Some obsolete positions are not listed unless recipients who continue to use the post-nominals even after the order becomes obsolete are still living.
The list below is in alphabetical order to make it easier to find the information you seek.
Orders and Decorations |
Post-nominal Awarded | |
| since Oct 1992 | before Oct 1992 | |
| Australian Antarctic Medal | AAM | AAM |
| Companion of the Order of Australia | AC | AC |
| Air Force Cross (UK) 2 | AFC | |
| Air Force Medal 2 | AFM | |
| Australian Fire Service Medal | AFSM | AFSM |
| Knight / Dame of the Order of Australia 3 | AK / AD | |
| Member of the Order of Australia | AM | AM |
| Officer of the Order of Australia | AO | AO |
| Australian Police Medal | APM | APM |
| Royal Red Cross (2nd Class, Associate) 2, 5 | ARRC | |
| Ambulance Service Medal (Australia) | ASM | ASM |
| British Empire Medal 2 | BEM | |
| Bravery Medal (Australia) | BM | BM |
| Companion of the Order of the Bath 2 | CB | |
| Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2 | CBE | |
| Conspicuous Gallantry Medal 2, 5 | CGM | |
| Conspicuous Gallantry Medal (Flying) 2, 5 | CGM | |
| Companion of Honour 2 | CH | |
| Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George 2 | CMG | |
| Conspicuous Service Cross (Australia) | CSC | CSC |
| Conspicuous Service Medal | CSM | CSM |
| Cross of Valour 5 | CV | CV |
| Commander of the Royal Victorian Order | CVO | CVO |
| Distinguished Conduct Medal 2, 5 | DCM | |
| Distinguished Flying Cross (UK) 2 | DFC | |
| Distinguished Flying Medal 2 | DFM | |
| Distinguished Service Cross (UK) 2, 5 | DSC | |
| Distinguished Service Cross (Australia) 5 | DSC | DSC |
| Distinguished Service Medal (UK) 2, 5 | DSM | |
| Distinguished Service Medal (Australia) 5 | DSM | DSM |
| Companion of the Distinguished Service Order 2 | DSO | |
| Emergency Services Medal (Australia) | ESM | ESM |
| George Cross 2, 5 | GC | |
| Knight / Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire 2 | GBE | |
| Knight / Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 2 | GCB | |
| Knight / Dame Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George 2 | GCMG | |
| Knight / Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order | GCVO | GCVO |
| George Medal 2 | GM | |
| Companion of the Imperial Service Order 2 | ISO | |
| Knight / Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2 | KBE / DBE | |
| Knight / Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath 2 | KCB / DCB | |
| Knight / Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George 2 | KCMG / DCMG | |
| Knight / Dame Commander of the Royal Victorian Order | KCVO / DCVO | KCVO / DCVO |
| Knight / Lady of the Garter | KG / LG | KG / LG |
| Knight / Lady of the Thistle | KT / LT | KT / LT |
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Please see next page for the rest of the Postnominals |
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Notes:
1 Refers to both the Imperial Victoria Cross and the
Victoria Cross for Australia. Awarding of the
Imperial Victoria Cross to Australian citizens ended when the Victoria Cross for Australia was
created as part of the Australian Honours System in 1991. The Australian Victoria Cross has yet
to be awarded. There have been 96 Australians awarded the Victoria Cross.
2 These are Imperial awards. All Imperial awards made to Australian citizens after 5 October 1992 are
classed as foreign awards, and hence such Australian citizens are not entitled to use the associated
post-nominal letters. However, those presented with these awards before that date are still permitted
to use the post-nominal letters.
3 Postnominals within the Order of St John are not recognised as notified in the Governor-Generals
media release of 14 August 1982.
4 Provision for further awards at the Knight & Dame level within the Order of Australia was removed by
Her Majesty The Queen on 3 March 1986 on the advice of the Prime Minister. Those who have been
awarded this rank are still permitted to use the title and the post-nominal letters.
5 In the period 1975-1991, for Australian citizens and ADF personnel, a number of Imperial awards were
replaced by Australian awards. See charts below:
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia article postnominal.
For more information visit the Australian government website http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/
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