# Can the government tell me how to sign my name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 6, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225 "2006-02-06T13:23:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/1 "2006-02-06T13:23:53Z")
Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation [thinks so](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4682430.stm): > [@](#): > > A US man who signs himself “God” has been told to use his real name by 14 February - or lose his driving licence. > Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation told Paul Sewell, 40, he must surrender his licence if he cannot provide proper identification. > > A week ago Berks County Elections Board questioned Sewell’s “God” signature on a voter registration form. How is this legal, when a person can legally sign a document simply making an “X”? Many people’s signatures are so illegible anyway, they are little more than a scribble. Is the state going to now enforce standards of penmanship? Signatures are more of a graphic device than a literal one. Every person has the freedom to develop their own personal signature, without editorial comment by the government. The state has no more right to determine how I sign my name than they do telling me how to pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/2 "2006-02-06T13:49:26Z")
You can sign your name any way you wish, sure - but it’s down to the person reading it to decide if they accept it or not. Like naming you can do what you want as long as you’re not seeking to commit fraud etc, in a case where you’re signing your name in a way that is obviously NOT your name then the argument could be made that that is what you’re trying to do i.e. if your name is John Smith and your sign your name George Bush it would make most people wonder. I sign my name in Arabic which which I can do, and if asked why I just say “why not?”, and it’s no different in my eyes signing my name in a shape that makes no sense to the reader than someone who signs their name with an inelligible swirl shape. But my sig isn’t by definition confusing, if someone reading it understood Arabic they’d know what my name was. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/3 "2006-02-06T14:02:13Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > I sign my name in Arabic which which I can do, and if asked why I just say “why not?”, and it’s no different in my eyes signing my name in a shape that makes no sense to the reader than someone who signs their name with an inelligible swirl shape. But my sig isn’t by definition confusing, if someone reading it understood Arabic they’d know what my name was. So if the man cited in my OP signed his name, “ **الله** ” , could the government object? Is that any more confusing to a person who cannot read Arabic than a squiggle? ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/4 "2006-02-06T14:08:54Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > So if the man cited in my OP signed his name, “ **الله** ” , could the government object? Is that any more confusing to a person who cannot read Arabic than a squiggle? They would probably be less likely to know that he was calling himself God, yes. So, if that was the basis of their objection (and I get the feeling it was) then I doubt the problem would been as likely to have come up. Given that the Allah in Arabic is seen quite frequently even in the West they may have realised, though. I think in that OP it was _what_ the man was signing his name as that was the issue, not that he wasn’t signing it as his name (unless his name really was god). ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/5 "2006-02-06T14:14:47Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > I think in that OP it was _what_ the man was signing his name as that was the issue, not that he wasn’t signing it as his name (unless his name really was god). I agree. If he had signed “Elmer Fudd”, there likely would have been no objection. So what this is really about is the appropriate use of a name of a religious deity, which here in the States is not supposed to be part of the official duties of the government. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/6 "2006-02-06T14:20:21Z")
Oh come _on_! You don’t really think that the church and state are separated do you? Theory and practice aren’t the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/7 "2006-02-06T14:23:56Z")
> [@Illuminatiprimus](#): > > Oh come _on_! You don’t really think that the church and state are separated do you? Theory and practice aren’t the same thing. The theory will never become practice if good men remain silent. And we have the Constitution on our side. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/8 "2006-02-06T14:56:52Z")
It may be written down as ‘God’, but it’s pronounced ‘Throat-Warbler Mangrove’ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/9 "2006-02-16T20:31:06Z")
Raymond Luxury Yacht called. He wants his name back. ---
**Author:** ![homeskillet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7ba0ec/32.png) [@homeskillet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/homeskillet)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/10 "2006-02-16T22:14:15Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Signatures are more of a graphic device than a literal one. Every person has the freedom to develop their own personal signature, without editorial comment by the government. Well see that’s what I would have thought. However, as I’ve mentioned here before, the Illinois DOT doesn’t seem to think so. When getting my state ID, the friendly IDOT man who was serving me wouldn’t accept my signature because it didn’t match my Social Security card, which I signed when I was 5. My mother had to teach me, it was the first thing I’d ever written in cursive. But our hapless state employee was unable to comprehend how my signature might have evolved since then. They made the same stink when I went to get one of the new cards after I turned 21. Seems in Illinois you’re stuck with your signature\* for life\*! ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/11 "2006-02-16T22:46:16Z")
There’s a man in the DR whose name is ‘Dios’ (Spanish for God) and it’s his real, legal, given name. Would they make him change his signature? ---
**Author:** ![Birdmonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71e660/32.png) [@Birdmonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Birdmonster)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/12 "2006-02-16T23:06:07Z")
> [@Martha](#): > > There’s a man in the DR whose name is ‘Dios’ (Spanish for God) and it’s his real, legal, given name. Would they make him change his signature? Doubt it. There’s plenty of Jesus…es in California & I’m sure they get along just fine. Hay-zeus, that is. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-government-tell-me-how-to-sign-my-name/343225/13 "2006-02-16T23:17:50Z")
Many years ago I was arrested for DUI in Yazoo County, Ms. When the bondsman came to bail me out I had to sign a “Promise to Appear”, which I did in the presence of the female deputy and the bondsman. She looked at it and told me that wasn’t my signature??? I told her that was ridiculous as she had just seen me sign it. She informed me that if I didn’t write it so she could read it I was going back to the cell. I very carefully resigned.