I just assume that these titles are all translations, not carryovers from UK system.
. . .
(I think I've mentioned before, but it is a lot more Peter the Great's Table of Ranks inspired than the UK Peerage concept)
It is also reminiscent of 16th-18th Century pre-Revolutionary French Nobility of the
ancien régime.
Wikipedia: French Nobility (Titles)
Wikipedia: French Nobility (Origins)
In that system many of the titles no longer had a specific precedence due to the varying circumstances that had occurred to various families (title-precedence was ranked by seniority-of-age of the title, not by title-name
(other than Duc
and Comte-Paar
, which were pre-eminent)), and by the end there were many trying to claim and defend the "right" to a particular title to prove noble privilege, one of the most common claims, coincidentally, being the assumed title of "
Marquis", which by the end had proliferated among those seeking to establish or maintain their supposed privileges. Note also that in the French system, there was also the division of Nobles into categories of
Legacy,
Office-Holder/Patent, and
Honour/Patent. And only certain Nobles were
Peers-of-France, both the aforementioned
Dukes and specifically those Counts designated so ("
Comte-Paar").
This was also apparently true of many of the
Old Vilani titles that got translated over into
Galanglic ones by the
Syleans at the begining of the
Third Imperium when the
Vilani Confederation was brought in; where the title of
Saarpuhii, despite nominally being roughly equivalent to a
Duke, just as easily might be rendered as a
Count to an old Vilani family anciently possessing the title due to actual reduced current family circumstances.
Considering Marc's comments over the years about a French influence on both Galanglic and a few other things within the Imperium, maybe this is the origin of a "fluid" precedence for the title of "
Marquis". But note also that canon has also specified that under the Sylean Federation, a
Viscount outranked an
Earl, and that apparently under the
Rule of Man many titles were initially given fairly arbitrarily as rough Anglic renderings of Vilani titles.
Also, unlike
UK Peerage-titles (and like the French and other
Continental Titles) and going all the way back to
CT: Book-1 (v. 1977) * ,
ALL members of a Noble's family are Noble, not just the Substantive title-holder. The non-substantive courtesy-title holders (or "untitled Nobles") are considered
Noble, not
Common. Thus the comment under the SOC text description that all family members may use the title even if not active in government. Later iterations of Traveller specified that the next generation of a substantive holder could all use the title at Soc "-1", the Heir increasing +1 at inheritance. Not specifically mentioned, but you could likewise maintain that non-substantive holders' children all devolve at an additional Soc "-1" (using the lesser title when there are two possible levels) until Soc=A (10) is reached. This can then account for many "legacy" titles that have no real power or authority but have "social-position" due to family-connections. Many of the lower-Soc non-substantive courtesy Nobles may simply be referred to as "Lord So-and-so" or "Lord Surname" without further specificity.
Also, don't forget that LOCAL (i.e. non-Imperial) Noble titles are also represented by and overlap the lower rungs of the Imperial Noble Social Scale at about Soc=9-12/13 (Local Gentry thru Local Great Noble/Royal) based on equivalent scope of influence/title.
* - In the 1977 edition, ALL Soc-titles were LOCAL/PLANETARY NOBLES for ALL Noble Soc-values (Soc=11-15 / Knight thru Duke). Imperial-level Nobles were not specifically defined other than the fluff text in later Library Data Supplements about a Duke being the first level of Imperial-authority at the Subsector Level after the Third Imperium was beginning to take shape as a setting.
Personally, I like to have a different series of titles for "people who do senior government stuff", another series for "awards for senior military types so they feel important", and a third series for "random citizens we feel like giving headpats to". So IMTU a Viscount and a Count are the same "stat", but a viscount is a very high award for a scientist or artist or whatever. And Count is a rank given to government officials doing certain kinds of jobs.
But I don't have all those "Interstellar Development Agency Nobles" that Mongoose is creating (based on GURPS & T5 stuff, presumably).
I don't mind the various T5 ranks, but I definitely assume that normally an "
Honour-Title" is the lesser of two possible titles at a given SOC-value (with a few possible exceptions, like Baron), and that the "
Lesser-Duke" level is normally the highest attainable title for a PC (
Honour or retired
Rank-title). A
High,
Rank, or
Proper-Landed/Administrative title can be either the Lesser or Greater Title at a given SOC-level, they just are not normally PCs.