# First name only signatures? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2025, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047 "2025-02-08T12:50:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047/21 "2025-02-11T02:18:31Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The oldest sig sample I have of me is age 12. It was my full name in my neatest (which is to say “objectively poor”) cursive. By the time I was out of high school I had settled on a consistent style that I use to this day. Which amounts to stylized but readily legible first letters of all 3 names, similarly stylized more or less identifiable shapes of the last letters, and a random squiggle in between. Which I use in three different formats: First Last, First MiddleInitial Last, and First MiddleName Last. And of course could also be used with just first initial if the need ever arose. This is correct. I knew well the mathematician Samuel Eilenberg. I once saw him sign something and it was an S, some random squiggles, an l, an E, more squiggles and a g. I asked him about it and he said that was his signature period. My worst experience has been to sign something online using a mouse. Just about impossible. I now have a .sig file that contains a photocopy of my signature at various sizes. My signature has deteriorated over the years, but no one seems to care since no one ever actually checks anway. A former friend of mine (ghosted for voting for the orange menace) never learned cursive despite having been born around 1940 in NYC. He had constant problems with signatures. They would not accept a printed version. This may change as cursive writing disappears from schools. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047/22 "2025-02-11T02:25:07Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > This is correct. I knew well the mathematician Samuel Eilenberg. I once saw him sign something and it was an S, some random squiggles, an l, an E, more squiggles and a g. I asked him about it and he said that was his signature period. That style of only-legible-first-letter of the names describes pretty much 75% of the signatures of my friends and family that I have seen, myself included. If you already know my name, you can sorta see how it adds up to my name, but if you don’t know my name, you wouldn’t be able to figure it out (well, you might get the first, since there’s not a lot of short names that begin with “P.”) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047/23 "2025-02-11T03:10:45Z")
I once saw a set of John F Kennedy’s signatures from over the course of his presidency. The first had every letter in his name clearly delineated (in cursive) but as they progressed the letters deteriorated until except for his initials the signature was nothing but a squiggle. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047/24 "2025-02-11T04:42:05Z")
I had to renew my state driver’s license last year, where the last step after the eye test and getting photographed is to write your signature on an electronic pad. It was on a high counter, about armpit level for me, and not movable, so it was very awkward. Plus you had only one chance (they let you decide if the picture was ok, or if you wanted a retake.) My resulting signature looks nothing like my real signature. I doubt it matters, since I can’t remember the last time looked at my DL’s signature. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047/25 "2025-02-11T07:23:13Z")
I just slash a line thru the signature space. No one has ever said a word. An aside, when my kids were in school, if you went to school as a parent, for whatever reason you signed a paper in the front offices. I flipped thru it one day. It was something like 30 pages on this clip board. They just added a new sheet when the previous one was filled up. Totally unreadable. It wouldn’t be able to be used as evidence. No one cleared or looked at the signatures. Just lists and lists of names and times. That were screwed up because the nearest wall clock didn’t work properly at Daylight savings every fall. I signed Yoko One for years. No one ever noticed or said anything. One time I was putting on a sticker "_my name is:_ at school. I accidentally wrote Yoko Ono. Walked around the book fair as Yoko Ono. No one said a word. ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2025, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047/26 "2025-02-11T07:50:34Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > One time I was putting on a sticker "_my name is:_ at school. I accidentally wrote Yoko Ono. Walked around the book fair as Yoko Ono. No one said a word. They were probably afraid you would start singing! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-name-only-signatures/1014047.md?page=1)