To be a dominant means nothing more than enjoying being the top, being the one who is dominating. Sometimes it means to dominate in all areas and day to day life, sometimes it is only to dominate in the chat room and not even in the bedroom and any other variation in between. How particular a person is about such prefixes and titles is up the dominant and has absolutely nothing to do with the way they speak or act, at most it might have to do with the aura of a person but even that is so vastly complicated the whole things might best be left at the fact that a dominant does not always speak with pride, arrogance, culture or anything else. He or she merely dominates in their own way. The same goes for honorifics though perhaos the only difference there might be that some people hold to traditions in that you would not call your parents Jack and Jill and hence would not call your master Bob or Lucy, though once again this depends both on what the dominant is like as well as what the submissive will agree to and allow.
As for a strong personality, that is a personal thing. Personally I enjoy a strong personality, because though I thoroughly enjoy dominating and playing lord of the land when in a bdsm session with whomever my submissive is at the time, I want to have a human companion most of the time. And an integral part of what makes us human is our characters, our personality and our uniqueness among each other. To have a cowed, silent and indistinguishable companion would be fine, but to have one with little or no personality would be like living with something that doesnt live, because everything from trees to animals have a personality, all you have to do is feel it.
A total ground zero submissive, wherein they can simply not stand up to anyone, not a bdsm submissive as such but a total submissive, can simply not say no. But anyone else had, has and will always have the capability to say no to anyone, even their master or mistress at the time. It is only the cost of that choice that usually stays a submissives hand. The cost could be that they will be left unsatisfied because they want their control stripped and yet fight for it, or the cost may be finding out their dominant is merely an insecure little pup when they leave. But a submissive is never, contrary to popular belief, helpless.