Do you have a 'signature'?

Or do you just scribble your name?

I’m a scribbler myself. My signatures never look the same. Sometimes I get tired in the middle and just kinda trail off. Especially on credit card pads - what’s the point? It’s going to look like shit anyway. It just turns into a wavy line.

I’m trying to change my initials signature so it’s actually letters, but I forget most of the time. (I have to sign off a stack of orders at work at least twice a month) Otherwise it’s a wavy line.

Actually I have a signature for artwork with my online name (Silvercat). I wish I could use it all the time. And I figured out a signature for when I finally change my full name. Right now if I change my last name, my parents will freak. My mom’s already annoyed by me changing my first, even though I’m just adding another sound.

Mine’s indecipherable. I think a handwriting computer could detect the typical accelerations in my scrawl and determine it was me, although no human could ever guess what my name actually was. I had beautiful penmanship in fourth grade.

Back in the dark ages when I was a radio personality, I signed my name at least 16 times in a four hour shift.

Log on 6AM hour - log continue 7AM - log continue 8AM - log off at 9:59AM.

Sign on, transmitter meter readings at 6AM and 9AM, sign off.

Rinse and repeat for the AM side.

I developed a nice little “scrawl” of my name that unfortunately continues to this day.

When I was president of a fraternal organization in 2000, they had me get a rubber stamp of my signature made. When I brought it to the secretary, he stamped it on a piece of paper, looked at it, and inquired politely: “What the hell does it say?”

Mine’s usually legible, unless I’m in a great hurry and the last syllable of my surname blurs into a wave and a loose circle. It’s always in a cone shape though. Doesn’t matter if it’s a scrawl or carefully scribed, a line from the initial to the last letter will just skim the top of the middle letter.

Yeah, I have one. I made it up when I knew that for the first time I’d have to sign a document as opposed to writing my name (my national ID, age 14). Dad barked at me that I had to include my lastname and it had to be understandable, so what I use is my illegible scribble (which is my name with a loop that was supposed to cross the z but has ended up looping around, promise) with the stick-letters lastname written on the bottom of the loop.

I have a rather long surname, so my signature consist of three first letters written in rather simplified way and some kind of hooked wave. Totally unreadable, but fast, characteristic and consistent, so it’s easy to identify as my signature for anybody who seen one.

Whenever official signature isn’t needed I tend to use just single letter initial. Since I’m only person among my acquaintances and friends that do it all of them know that’s me.

My first name basically comes out as one letter and a scribble. Even then it looks like an “L” rather then a “T”. Then my middle initial and my last name which is hard to scribble. It actually slows me down quite a bit due to so many up and down motions.

I liked me maiden name and my second husbands last name. They flowed from the pen and were a lot easier to write fast.

Mine is pretty consistent and recognizable. My handwriting isn’t that elegant, but it is readable.

See mine below…

I have a simple signature, mainly for clear identification.
However I was asked for an autograph once!

Actually, I have sort of an “icon” now.

Years ago, I started adding a little curly-headed smiley face to things - faxes, memos, notes to colleagues - and now it’s turned into an image which is associated with me. People instantly recognize it as mine; it’s cool how that worked out.
If you run across this little gal, you know who put her there.

I had a quite lovely signature, then I got a job where I had to sign my name many times a day.

So now it consists of my first name letter (concession to officials who told me I needed to at least acknowledge my first name on all official documents even if I don’t write it out), middle which is the first two letters and a wiggly scrawl and my last name which is the first letter, scrawl to f (where it sharply loops up and then down and the pen gets lifted) then a scrawl and another sharp jut upwards that’s supposed to be a d… but with no real loop on the bottom so it could be an uncrossed t…

Funnily enough, my handwriting is still legible and not nearly as sharp as my signature looks.

I have a unique way of writing my initials so it looks like some weird symbol. I use that for both my initials and my signature.

Of course, when my father first saw me signing checks and other things that way, he griped, “No one is going to know who the hell you are!”

I guess he is stuck on the idea that your signature must be a reasonably legible cursive representation of your name. I see a signature as a unique identifying mark, which may or may not be a spelling-out of your name, or it could be a symbol, or anything else.

If you just do some wavy line, or if you sign differently every time you sign something, then you are at a higher risk for forgeries. Your signature should be something that is somewhat challenging to replicate by someone else’s hand and something that you can replicate yourself fairly consistently with your own hand.

I usually use my first initial running into the last name to sign for purchases; that’s how the cards are signed. For absolutely official documents, I do full first name running into middle initial, running into last name. It takes a little while.

For marking memos or something I’ve reviewed, etc., I have a gg symbol that looks like a little doodle.

Well, I assume a handwriting expert could tell that three of my signatures that look different were done by the same person. Part of my difficulty is when I come up with a signature it’s stacked one way or another. I suppose I could go to the bank and fill out a new signature card to start using one of my signatures. But I don’t think they’ll accept ‘Silvercat’ as a legally binding signature.

Most definitely. I was probably influenced by my mother who has a very distinctive, artistic signature, as well as beautiful handwriting.

Mine isn’t quite as nice as hers, but it is still distinctive. It usually consists of my full name: First, middle and last, though sometimes I just use the middle initial. When I was single, I used my middle name a lot in daily life, because my first name is very common among people my age, and my last name was very common, period. My married surname is quite unusual, so these days, I use my middle name less as a distinguisher, but it remains part of my sig.

Yes. I don’t have beautiful handwriting (ha!) but I do have a signature. My initials are MA, and they contain very sharp angles. No rounded points on the M or the A, all sharp points. The rest of it, the e’s and the a’s, look rushed and the n’s are just little humps.

I just write my name in cursive (it’s probably very easy for someone forge).

I think you can make out 3 letters in mine, out of 10.

My maiden name was much easier to write; when I got married, I had to adapt to a much less “ergonomic” combination of letters. It isn’t a peculiar name at all, it just doesn’t let the ink flow easily. My maiden name just went right off the pen.