Why Esq?

So I've had a few people ask me recently where the "Esq" in my Twitter and other social media handles comes from. It's not from any throw-back title or the like, but a combination of childhood curiosity and stubbornness.

When I was very young and used to hang out with my Grandmother (hi Grandmère) after school, I wanted to know why adults always had Mr and Mrs before their names on letters. The answer that it was a polite way to address people obviously didn't satisfy me, and I wanted to know what (precocious) children would be called. We looked it up in a book and found that young, unmarried men used to have Esquire appended to their names. I quite liked that, obviously, and spent a few afternoons practicing writing Chris Reid, Esq. to prepare for the flood of future correspondence I was obviously going to be receiving.

Fast-forward about two decades. When signing up for Twitter, I was frustrated to see that almost every permutation of my name was taken (thanks bland Anglo-Saxon nomenclature). Eventually I remembered my fascination with Esq., tried adding that to my name, and that was that.