Difference between Ms and Miss explained

Most of us probably haven’t given a second thought to the titles we use, just using them when ticking boxes or ordering shopping. However, many of these have deeper meanings when you look a little further, especially when it comes to feminine titles.

While men will go by Mr regardless of their marital status, women’s titles can change based on this – Miss for an unmarried woman and Mrs for one who is married. However, there is a third option, Ms, which can be used by women regardless of their marital status. While it’s certainly less common than Miss or Mrs, Ms is still used by many women, and is often a matter of personal choice.

What’s the difference between Miss and Ms?

Miss is typically used only by unmarried women, while Ms is used by women regardless of marital status. While traditional titles, Miss and Mrs were deemed by some to be rather sexist, as they define a woman by her marital status.

Ms, on the other hand, does not denote any marital status. However it has been criticised by some for “not standing for anything.”

This argument has been criticised by historian Dr Amy Erickson, who has studied the origins of Mrs, Miss and Ms. She said: “It’s curious that the use of Ms is often criticised today as not ‘standing for’ anything. In fact, it has an impeccable historical pedigree since it was one of several abbreviations for Mistress in the 17th and 18th centuries.”

What’s the origin of these titles?

Mrs, Miss and Ms are all abbreviations of the word ‘Mistress’, while Mr is an abbreviation of ‘Master.’ However, while Miss and Mrs denote marital status today, this wasn’t always the case.

The term ‘Miss’ was only adopted by adult women for the first time in the middle of the 18th century, prior to which it only been used by girls, while women would typically be referred to as ‘Mrs’, regardless of their marital status.

Even then, these titles weren’t used by all women, and Dr Erickson explains: “Until the 19th century, most women did not have any prefix before their name. Mrs and, later, Miss were both restricted to those of higher social standing. Women on the bottom rungs of the social scale were addressed simply by their names.

“Thus, in a large household the housekeeper might be Mrs Green, while the scullery maid was simply Molly and the woman who came in to do the laundry was Tom Black’s wife or Betty Black.”

Why do some women go by Ms?

Back in 2017, the BBC spoke to a number of women who go by Ms, rather than Mrs or Miss, to ask why they had made this decision. Helen Hall, 51, from Scarborough, said: “I started to use Ms for two reasons. Beyond the age of 25, Miss feels rather undignified. Also, I began to resent having to reveal my marital status.

“When organisations see me listed as Ms, they always call me Mrs Hall. I don’t correct them, as I don’t want to make a big deal of it. I dealt face-to-face with customers for 15 years, and when taking details from a woman, I would always ask, ‘Which title do you prefer?’ Simple.”

While Jennie Jonasson, 51, from Montreal, Canada, said: “I go by Ms. When my husband and I received an invoice addressed to Mr and Mrs, I sent it back with the Mr and Mrs scratched out and wrote: ‘Mr [husband’s surname] and Ms Jonasson’. Mrs and Miss to me are dinosaur terms that belong in the Downton Abbey era!”