Many professional designations in the United States take the form of

post-nominal letters Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...

. Certifications are usually awarded by professional societies or educational institutes. Obtaining a certificate is voluntary in some fields, but in others, certification from a government-accredited agency may be legally required to perform certain jobs or tasks. Organizations in the United States involved in setting standards for certification include the

American National Standards Institute The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The orga ...

(ANSI) and the

Institute for Credentialing Excellence The Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE) is one of the two main U.S. organizations that accredit personnel certifications or certificates. In November 2009 the ICE formally changed its name from the National Organization for Competency As ...

(ICE). Many certification organizations are members of the

Association of Test Publishers The Association of Test Publishers or ATP is an established non-profit trade association representing providers of tests and assessment tools and/or services related to assessment, selection, screening, certification Certification is the pr ...

(ATP).

Accounting and finance

Actuarial

Architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and planning

, Certified Professional Building Designer , , CPBD , , American Institute of Building Design

Association, credentialing, and not-for-profit management

Broadcast engineering

Communications

Contract management

Economics

Emergency management and public safety

Engineering

Genealogy

Geology, soil science, and other earth sciences

Geospatial and surveying

Government

Hospitality, tourism and recreation

Human resources professions

Insurance industry

IT industry

Law

Additionally, many jurisdictions grant some or all judges the right to use postnominal letters, which they generally employ in lieu of "Esq." The most common is "J." (for "Judge" or ""Justice"), but more complex systems exist. For instance, in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

, Judges of the

New Jersey Superior Court The Superior Court is the state court in the U.S. state of New Jersey, with statewide trial and appellate jurisdiction. The New Jersey Constitution of 1947 establishes the power of the New Jersey courts.Jeffrey S. Mandel, New Jersey Appellate Pr ...

are entitled to the postnomials "J.S.C.", except for the a Presiding Judges of the Family, Civil, Criminal, and General Equity Parts in a vicinage (entitled to the letters "P.J.F.P.", "P.J. Civ. P.", "P.J. Cr. P.", and "P.J. Ch. P."), a vicinage assignment judge (entitled to "A.J.S.C."), Appellate Division judges ("J.A.D.") and the Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division ("P.J.A.D."). Justices of the

Supreme Court of New Jersey The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging th ...

are entitled to the simple postnomial "J.", except for the Chief Justice, who uses "C.J."

Supply chain, logistics and transportation

Medicine and health care

Military

Real estate

Religion and theology

Telecommunications and cable

Workplace learning and performance

Other

References

{{United States topics

Post-nominal letters Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...