Questions of the Day: "Lord" and "Lady" applied to Wiccans

Well, the good news is I'm working pretty much full time again. The bad news is that it seriously cuts into blogging time, particularly those down moments when I think of random things of note about Wicca. So, for the near future, I expect I'll be primarily catching up with Questions of the Day.

Are you familiar with the terms 'Lady' and 'Lord' being used to address coven/group leaders and initiated coven members? (When) do you use them and (when) are these terms appropriate?

Honestly, I'm not very familiar with the practice. This may have to do with the fact that I am not a member of an initiatory coven. The only people I know of using such a naming convention is Lady Sheba, an early author on Wicca, and Lady Gwen Thompson, who wrote Rede of the Wiccae which put a lot of erroneous notions into people's heads about what Wiccans as a whole believe.

Personally, whatever you do in your coven is your own business, IMHO. However, when you start strutting coven titles around outside of the coven, that looks attention seeking and needy to me. If your coven feels "lord" or "lady" is an appropriate way of showing respect, so be it. But when you use it outside the coven, you're expecting outsiders to respect your title, rather than the title being a sign of respect. I buy someone's book if they appear to have good information, not because they have offered up impressive titles for themselves.

If I was running a coven, I probably wouldn't use them. As a solitary, I certainly don't use them.