Does a person have to be British to be knighted?

The idea is that knighthoods and other honours can be awarded by the monarch to his or her own subjects. Queen Elizabeth II is Queen of 16 countries (the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several small island countries mostly in the Caribbean). So a knighthood can be awarded to a citizen of any one of those, and often is, but you don't hear of it much other than for Britons because Canada and Australia have their own honours systems in addition, and all the Queen's other realms are comparatively small.

The Queen is represented in all her other 15 realms by a Governor-General, who used to always be British, but in recent years is nominated from the country itself by its own government, and mostly they are knighted after they have had the job for a while.

Honorary knighthoods can be awarded to anyone else but they are not entitled to use the title of "Sir". To get round the problem that they can't show anyone that they are a knight, a foreign citizen (i.e. not one of Her Majesty's subjects) is always appointed to an order of chivalry rather than to the honour of Knight Bachelor. The difference is that Knight Bachelor just puts "Sir" in front of your name, but being appointed a knight of an order of chivalry gives you letters after it as well - the most commonly used one is KBE, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. This was done for, to pick a random example, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft. He can call himself Bill Gates KBE if he wants to, but he cannot use "Sir". If, say, he moved to Canada and became a naturalised Canadian citizen, he'd be able to.

Which is another point - if someone becomes a naturalised citizen of one of the Queen's realms, they become entitled to be a "Sir". A good example of this is Sir Terry Wogan KBE. He's Irish but has been a radio and TV presenter for over 40 years in the UK, famous for presenting the breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 for goodness knows how long, covering the Eurovision Song Contest for BBC TV for about the same amount of time, hosting the annual "Children in Need" telethon and much more. I can't imagine anyone in the UK who doesn't know who he is. In honour of all that he was given an honorary KBE, but by the time a few months later he attended the investiture to be dubbed a knight by the Queen (she still does it in the traditional way by tapping the new knight on both shoulders with a sword while he kneels before her - this is called dubbing) he had finally applied for and been granted naturalisation as a British citizen and so the honorary knighthood was upgraded to a full one. Here's the official announcement http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/57855/suppl...

A woman cannot be knighted. The title of "Sir" has become so associated with men even just as part of the English language that it just wouldn't work. If you called male teachers at school "Sir" as a title of respect (I don't know about anywhere else but that's a common practice in British schools) you wouldn't do it to female ones. It'd just sound silly. So the title of "Dame" has been created as part of the Order of the British Empire. If the British government wants to honour a woman to the same level as a knight, they are appointed Dame and they get that in front of their name and DBE after it.

A man can only be knighted if he is a British or British Commonwealth Citizen.

he can be a naturalised British subject.

A Non British or British Commonwealth person can be granted the equivalent honour but he is not able to use the title Sir, Example’s are Bill Gates and Bob Geldof, who were made KBE Knight of the British Empire but being an American and Irish citizen respectably can't call himself Sir William / Bill or Robert / Bob. However Sir Terry Wogan is also an Irish Citizen can and does call himself Sir Terry as Ireland was part of the UK when he was born.

The equivalent honour to a Knighthood for a British or British Commonwealth woman is a Dame Hood. An example is Dame Julie Andrews and Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

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Non-Commonwealth citizens only receive honorary knighthoods; they cannot use a title and are not dubbed on the shoulder with a sword or draped around the neck with a medal, which is instead simply handed to them. It is not as straightforward as DANIEL W puts it, that any citizen from one of the Queen's dominions can be knighted. Canada does not allow its residents to receive titles, but Canadians settled in Britain who are being honored for services to Britain can be knighted (though even then the Canadian gov't protested Sir George Bain's knighthood despite his living in Britain for 30 years). People in the dependent territories/colonies are also eligible. Daniel is also wrong to say only British and Irish people are eligible for peerages. Baroness Dunn is from Hong Kong, Lord Thomson is Canadian, and Conrad Black was offered a peerage before he renounced his Canadian citizenship. There have also been peers from Australia, New Zealand, India and other places. And Nikki Pitt, Northern Ireland *is* part of the UK!

British Knighthoods

A person can only be knighted if he is a British citizen. (He doesn't actually have to be British *born* - he can be a naturalised British subject.)

A non-British person can be granted the equivalent honour (provided his own government permit him to accept it), but he is not able to use the title "Sir". An example is Bob Geldof, who was made KBE (= "Knight of the British Empire"), but being an Irish citizen, can't call himself Sir Bob.

The equivalent honour to a knighthood for a (British) woman is a Damehood. An example is Dame Judi Dench, who ranks equally with her fellow actor Sir Ian McKellen.

Lots of non-British people have been given honorary knighthoods, e.g. Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, but they aren't allowed to use the title "sir".

The female equivalent of a knight is a "dame", e.g. Dame Judy Dench (actress).

No!

Many modern day Republics and Monarchies have Orders of Knighthood!

For example France has "Chavalier" rank in most of it's civil decorations!

The BeeGees were knighted and they came from Australia, but that is part of the UK.

Why Guyanese are not knighted?

Not at all dear girl. That scurrilous rapscallion Robert Mugabe was knighted by Her Majesty. I did warn her at the time that the man would turn Rhodesia into a basket case but did she listen? Absolutely not!