This has long been a pet pieve of mine: The inappropriate use of the self-laudatory title “Esquire”. When signing your own name you may indicate you are an “Attorney at Law” but please don’t refer to yourself as “Esq.” And while we’re on the subject of grammatical pet pieves do not tell someone he or she is “incredible” in an attempt to pay them a compliment. The word means not credible. As in the witness is incredible. His testimony should not be given any weight.
From Wikipedia. . .
Esquire (abbreviated Esq.) is a term of British origin, originally used to denote social status. Within the United States, it is used as a postnominal honorific by licensed attorneys and by some naval officers and fraternal organizations. Ultimately deriving from the medieval squires who assisted knights, the term came to be used automatically by men of gentle birth. The social rank of Esquire is that above gentleman.
More specifically, though, a distinction was made between men of the
upper and lower gentry, who were “esquires” and “gentlemen”
respectively (between, for example, “Thomas Smith, Esq.” and “William
Jones, Gent.”). A late example of this distinction is in the list of
subscribers to The History of Elton, by the Rev. Rose Fuller Whistler, published in 1882, which clearly distinguishes between subscribers designated “Mr” (another way of indicating gentlemen) and those allowed “Esquire.”
Thus, practically speaking, Esq in legal writing or the term “esquire” may be appended to
the name of any man not possessing a higher title (such as that of knighthood or peerage) or a clerical one. In practice, however, “esquire” in the US is most commonly assumed by lawyers in a professional capacity; it has come to be associated by many Americans solely with the legal profession.[citation needed]
Regardless of to whom it is applied, the term “Esq.” should not be
used when talking about oneself, or in directly addressing somebody
else. Rather, it is used in third-person contexts, such as business
letterhead and when addressing an envelope.
