How do consumers evaluate the prestige of a person or an object ? This paper proposes an empirical exploration of this question from a symbolic interactionist point of view. On the basis of in-depth interviews with consumers, a conceptual model is proposed. The findings highlight the key role of (1) the perception of unique human achievement; (2) the interpretation of socially shared symbols and (3) reference group influence in the formation of subjective prestige judgments. The informant's expertise, self-monitoring style and socio-cultural factors moderate the relationships between these constructs. The results point to similar mechanisms for the perceived prestige of people and inanimate objects. The paper ends with a discussion of the limits of the study and future research directions.