Read a title that is also a given name as a title only inside a title phrase (#752, phase 2i)

docs/concepts.rst

@@ -136,8 +136,9 @@ this setting vary with?
   that varies by **output destination**: the ``spec`` you pass to
   ``render(spec)``, or a keyword to ``initials()``/``capitalized()``.
 
-"Dean" is a common given name, so it is not in the default titles
-vocabulary. But in some data it is more common as a title. The right
+"Dean" is a common given name, so the default reads it as a title only
+inside a title phrase ("Dean of Students"), and "Dean Martin" keeps
+given "Dean". But in some data it is more common as a title. The right
 reading is a fact about the domain the names come from: that makes it a
 :class:`~nameparser.Lexicon` entry. A CRM that wraps nicknames in
 square brackets — ``John [Johnny] Smith`` — instead of quotes is a

docs/customize.rst

@@ -102,8 +102,9 @@ Removing works the same way, and drops the word from recognition:
     >>> Parser(lexicon=lean).parse("Professor Robert Johns").title
     ''
 
-A few fields mark a subset of another — ``given_name_titles`` and
-``after_given_titles`` over ``titles``, ``particles_ambiguous`` over ``particles``,
+A few fields mark a subset of another — ``given_name_titles``,
+``after_given_titles``, ``title_modifiers`` and ``title_styles`` over
+``titles``, ``particles_ambiguous`` over ``particles``,
 ``suffix_acronyms_ambiguous`` over ``suffix_acronyms``,
 ``conjunctions_ambiguous`` over ``conjunctions``,
 ``honorific_tails`` and ``suffix_words_ambiguous`` over
@@ -113,30 +114,48 @@ the marker first. Four of them enforce that — ``particles_ambiguous``,
 ``suffix_acronyms_ambiguous``, ``honorific_tails`` and
 ``suffix_words_ambiguous`` raise ``ValueError`` naming the orphans,
 because an orphan in each of those does real harm rather than nothing.
-The other four are deliberately unchecked because an orphan there is
+The others are deliberately unchecked because an orphan there is
 inert, an ``agnomens`` entry being read only for a word
-``suffix_words_ambiguous`` marks:
+``suffix_words_ambiguous`` marks, and a ``title_modifiers`` or
+``title_styles`` entry only for a title:
 ``given_name_titles`` matches a title run as one space-joined string, or
 by that run's last word, so a legitimate entry like ``"sir and dame"``
 is no single word in ``titles``; and a ``conjunctions_ambiguous`` or
 ``after_given_titles`` entry is only ever read for a word that is a
 conjunction or a title, so ``remove(conjunctions={"e"})`` simply works
 and the stale marker entry is never consulted.
 
+``titles_ambiguous`` is the one title field that is no subset of
+``titles``: a word in it is a title only inside a title phrase, and a
+word in both is a title wherever it stands, which is what listing it in
+``titles`` asks. ``title_phrases`` holds the two-word phrases a
+``titles_ambiguous`` word may stand in (``"chief justice"``,
+``"major general"``), each read only where both words are titles:
+
+.. doctest::
+
+    >>> chief = Lexicon.default().remove(title_phrases={"chief justice"})
+    >>> Parser(lexicon=chief).parse("Chief Justice John Roberts").title
+    'Chief'
+
 .. _title-detection-off:
 
 Turning title detection off
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 The subset rule matters most when clearing a field wholesale. Emptying
 ``titles`` alone orphans every ``given_name_titles`` entry, so the two
-go together:
+go together, with ``titles_ambiguous``, whose words are titles inside a
+phrase ("Dean of Students") without being in ``titles``:
 
 .. doctest::
 
     >>> d = Lexicon.default()
     >>> lean = d.remove(titles=set(d.titles),
-    ...                 given_name_titles=set(d.given_name_titles))
+    ...                 given_name_titles=set(d.given_name_titles),
+    ...                 titles_ambiguous=set(d.titles_ambiguous))
+    >>> Parser(lexicon=lean).parse("Dean of Students Jane Smith").title
+    ''
     >>> Parser(lexicon=lean).parse("Hon Solo").given
     'Hon'
 
@@ -408,10 +427,12 @@ free:
   needs one adds it back with
   ``Lexicon.default().add(suffix_acronyms={"cha"})``.
 
-The same conservatism is why ``dean`` above isn't in the default
-vocabulary in the first place: "Dean" is also a common given name, and
-a default that swallowed it as a title would misparse "Dean Martin" for
-everyone.
+The same conservatism is why ``dean`` above is a title by default only
+inside a title phrase ("Dean of Students", "Associate Dean"): "Dean" is
+also a common given name, and a default that swallowed it as a title
+would misparse "Dean Martin" for everyone. Listing it in ``titles``
+makes it a title wherever it stands. The phrase-only titles are
+``Lexicon.titles_ambiguous``.
 
 Particles that are also given names
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

docs/design/decisions/README.md

@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ Entry conventions:
 - [H6 — a title before a family comma](H6-title-before-a-family-comma.md)
 - [H7 — a joined name unit carrying title vocabulary](H7-joined-name-unit-carrying-title-vocabulary.md)
 - [H8 — a salutation ending the given part](H8-salutation-ending-the-given-part.md)
+- [H9 — the title phrase](H9-title-phrase.md)
 
 ## Particles & surname prefixes (P)
 

docs/design/decisions/salutation-titles.md

@@ -7,14 +7,16 @@ Closes #606 (#662 later added owura and bapak, its bullet below, and #847 cllr).
 - A word that addresses or ranks a person and is written in FRONT of the name ships as a title unless it is borne as an ordinary name in the leading position, the position test of vocabulary-collisions' C-i, TITLES having no ambiguous subset to mark a collision in, so the only answers are ship and do not ship — 2026-10-04 #606.
 - One exception to C-i, for TITLES alone: a word borne as a name only RARELY as the first word of one ships on the precedent of `graf` (`herra`, `batoni`, `hrabia`, `kreivi` and the rest of the graf class, each with its counts on its title reading's `note`), and no word in the particle or suffix sets, and no later title, takes it without its own counts — 2026-10-04 #606.
 - The cost falls on a name that BEGINS with such a word: `Greve Anna` reads title 'Greve', family 'Anna' and `Herra Wijaya` title 'Herra', family 'Wijaya'; a declared `FAMILY_FIRST` does not help (`Hrabia Anna` reads title 'Hrabia' under it); the family comma keeps the word as the family where no name word stands behind it (`Hrabia, Anna` reads given 'Anna', family 'Hrabia', and so does `Hrabia Jr., Anna`), while a name word behind it makes it the title by H6 (`Hrabia Nowak, Anna` reads title 'Hrabia', family 'Nowak'); a name that ends in the word keeps it (`Gladys Knight`, `Knight, Gladys` read family 'Knight'), unless a period follows it (`Gladys Knight.` reads title 'Knight.', family 'Gladys', by H5, accepted rather than prevented) — 2026-10-04 #606.
-- Words judged a COMMON leading-position name stay out (`thiru`, `puan`, `pan`, `rodina`, `ông` and its pair `bà`, and `marshal` and `justice`, whose accepted costs their entries state: `Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery` reads title 'Field', given 'Marshal'), and words with no evidence either way are not shipped (`gróf`, `cik`, `paron`, `tikin`, `janab`), each an `excluded` entry in its language's file (`uv run python tools/vocab/query.py --excluded title --issue 606`) — 2026-10-04 #606.
+- Words judged a COMMON leading-position name stay out (`thiru`, `puan`, `pan`, `rodina`, and `ông` and its pair `bà`), and words with no evidence either way are not shipped (`gróf`, `cik`, `paron`, `tikin`, `janab`), each an `excluded` entry in its language's file (`uv run python tools/vocab/query.py --excluded title --issue 606`) — 2026-10-04 #606.
 - Accents are not folded, so `paní` and `härra` match only their accented spellings (`Paní Nováková` reads title 'Paní', `Pani Anna` reads given 'Pani'); folding the lexicon would turn both into collisions, and whoever proposes it re-argues the entry — 2026-10-04 #606.
 - `gravos` was dropped, not excluded, since nothing showed it is the Greek word for Count; `κόμης`, a Greek surname written first in official lists, is neither added nor excluded, and adding it is a decision still to make — 2026-10-04 #606.
 - `knt` (Knight, beside `kt`) is a suffix acronym with a `Knt` case mask: `Mary Knt` reads suffix 'Knt' — 2026-10-04 #606.
 - `cllr` (Councillor, British, written bare) is a title, on counts under 100 US Census bearers and none found as a name elsewhere — 2026-10-22 #847.
 - `owura` (Akan) and `bapak` (Indonesian) are titles, on counts under 100 US Census bearers each and none found on Wikidata, and `malam` (Hausa) and `bay` (Turkish) are excluded, each an `excluded` entry with its counts — 2026-10-17 #662.
 - The Italian abbreviated salutations and letter-heading honorifics whose letters after the full stop are the word's own ending ship as titles with `cased` masks: `sig.ra`, `sig.na`, `dott.ssa`, `prof.ssa`, `gent.mo`, `gent.ma`, `gent.le`, `ill.mo`, `ill.ma`, `ch.mo`, `ch.ma`, `preg.mo`, `preg.ma` (`Dott.ssa Anna Bianchi` reads title 'Dott.ssa', given 'Anna'; `SIG.RA MARIA ROSSI` repairs to 'Sig.ra Maria Rossi'); the bare `sig` and `ing` are excluded as given names, their period-marked spellings already titles by H2's shape, except `Ing.` after a full name and a comma, which is the ambiguous credential decisions/suffix-acronym-collisions lists (#848) — 2026-10-22 #840.
 
+Elsewhere: `justice` and `marshal`, excluded here as common leading-position names, are titles only inside a title phrase since 2026-10-25 and 2026-10-26 (`Chief Justice John Roberts` reads title 'Chief Justice' and `Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery` title 'Field Marshal', `Justice Smith` and `Marshal Yanda` the given name) — decisions/H9's 2026-10-25 #752, phase 2i entry; decisions/H9's 2026-10-26 #752, phase 2i (Derek) entry.
+
 ## Log
 
 - 2026-10-04 #606 (its family-comma remedy superseded in part by #701, decisions/H6) — SALUTATIONS, OFFICES AND RANKS FOR THE LANGUAGES TITLES HAD NONE FOR: the undated bullets below, through the measurement.