Most who were able to be contacted this week said deciding to accept the title was a natural progression from accepting their original honours, something which occurred up to a decade ago.
Titles were abolished in 1999, but Prime Minister John Key announced in March they would be reinstated from July for the people made principal or distinguished companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit between 2000 and last year.
Accepting a title was optional.
Of the 85 people eligible throughout the country, 72 decided they would accept a title and 13 did not.
A service to commemorate the reintroduction of titles will be held at St Paul's Cathedral in Wellington later this month, and will be followed by a formal dinner that evening.
Most of the Otago knights and dames contacted said they planned to attend.
The decision made by those with Otago connections is not a huge surprise.
Businessman and former New Zealand Olympic Committee chairman Sir Eion Edgar and Dunedin educationalist Dame Pat Harrison had both said earlier they would accept a title, while former Anglican bishop of Dunedin the Rt Rev Dr Penny Jamieson and actor Sam Neill had said they would not.
Because of her ill health, an announcement was made in April that opera singer Heather Begg, based in Sydney for many years, had decided to accept a title.
She died on May 12.
Dame Sukhi Turner said yesterday accepting a title was not a difficult decision.
"The harder decision was to accept the honour in the first place."
Dame Lois Muir said while she was not concerned herself whether or not she was a dame, the title held significance for the netballing fraternity and the public.
"I think it is a nice thing for netball... And my husband [Murray] would have loved it."
Mr Muir died in 2004, not long after Dame Lois received her award minus its title.
Accepting a title was an acknowledgement to all those in her native Scotland and in New Zealand who had helped her in her career, Emeritus Prof Dame Linda Holloway said.
Learning her daughter was to be known as Dame was also a delight to her 94-year-old mother, she said.
Emeritus Prof Sir Lloyd Geering said his family and friends had persuaded him to accept a title.
He said he would have much preferred the decision to have been made by someone else, rather than asking honours recipients to decide.
University of Otago vice chancellor Prof Sir David Skegg said he hoped his title would be used sparingly.
"I would like people in Dunedin to continue to call me David, preferably, or Professor Skegg. I can think of no higher honour than to be a professor at the University of Otago. My wife is even more definite that she wants to be known as Dr Keren Skegg, not Lady Skegg."
Conservationist Emeritus Prof Sir Alan Mark also said he "would be happy to be called Alan".
"Being a sir is not in my personality, really."
His original thought was to decline a title, but he had been persuaded otherwise.
"I accepted because it is reassuring that conservation is recognised as deserving of the same honours as all other aspects of New Zealand life . . . such as education, medicine and literature."
Olive Hutchins, of Queenstown, widow of tourism pioneer Les Hutchins, who died in 2002, has decided to use the courtesy title of Lady Hutchins.
