# Why did I have to sign my whole name? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 20, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897 "2013-02-20T19:57:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/21 "2013-02-21T14:47:00Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > ETA: All of that said, 21 years of military life made me the master of my own signature. It’s kind of amusing, really… the first few years of my career, you could actually make out what my name is supposed to be. By the midpoint, you could almost pick out my initials. By the time I was signing off on my retirement paperwork, all you could tell is that my name was a slightly bumpy curved line. My wife (an attorney) explained that her signature devolved from a somewhat legible version of her name to a squiggle and line affair not long after she started to practice, because she had to sign so many documents. Came in handy when we bought our house; her hand didn’t hurt after we got done, while mine did (my signature’s a legible, but somewhat stylized version of how I’d write my name longhand). ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/22 "2013-02-21T14:52:16Z")
> [@Carryon](#): > > I worked in the public aid office in Illinois and we always asked you signed your full name as if you didn’t, it usually came back disputed. Since they ask for full names it’s what they expect on the signature. > > I had one woman who refused to sign anymore than her first initial and last name. I took a photocopy of her driver’s license and sent it in. It came back denied. I then resubmitted and it got approved, but the woman would have gotten it sooner, if she just gave in and signed her full name. Oh lordy, I hate this. I have a nerve condition that makes it impossible for me to sign my whole name. I’m lucky I can do the chicken scratch that I do. I hate having to explain my condition every time I’m asked to sign my full name. And comically, on some applications/paper work, there is a box that says: PLEASE PRINT YOUR NAME LEGIBALLY. (and then sign right next to it) Well guess what guys; I CAN’T! Oh, the confussion this causes in some admin offices. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/23 "2013-02-21T15:25:25Z")
[Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s loopy signature](http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/01/stop-judging-jack-lews-ridiculous-signature/) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/24 "2013-02-21T15:44:33Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Auditors can be collosal assholes. It’s their signature trait. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/25 "2013-02-21T15:51:13Z")
> [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](#): > > It’s not lawyers who are insisting on it. Generally, it’s real estate agents or loan officers or public aid administrators — i.e., people who don’t know the law (and don’t know what signatures are for in the law), but who also have an outsized notion of how much they know. > > In other words, dogs obeyed in office and all that. This. Non-lawyers tend to have bizarre ideas about the legal requirements for the authentication of documents. Many states don’t even require _attorneys_ to physically sign their own pleadings anymore, thanks to electronic filing systems. In the case mentioned in the OP, there was a _notary_ present. The notary’s seal is all that is necessary to establish that the individual signing the document is the one named. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/26 "2013-02-21T18:45:03Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > In the case mentioned in the OP, there was a _notary_ present. The notary’s seal is all that is necessary to establish that the individual signing the document is the one named. Haha, the person complaining about my inconsistent signature _was_ a notary. Great. For the record, no I never filled notebooks full of signatures in middle school. When I was bored at home, I had TV and video games, and when I was bored at school I had video games on my graphing calculator. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/27 "2013-02-21T18:55:17Z")
I just changed my signature within the past year. I was kind of bored with it, so I experimented for a while (got some strange looks in line when I asked Mrs. Devil if she like this or that version) and settled on something that’s fairly inconsistent with the odd scribbles that came before. I’m also the type–if there is no line behind me–to draw pictures on the electronic signature pad. This is particularly fun when buying cold medicine. So far I’ve never been refused. I do need to re-submit a signature card to our business bank, but haven’t had a problem yet. My assumption is that I can change things up whenever I want and the only person who will ever care about my signature is someone looking to prove I signed something. I see no reason why it would be easier to forge my regular signature than it is a variety of stylized designs. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/28 "2013-02-21T19:12:02Z")
> [@sweeteviljesus](#): > > I just came back from a closing on a refi where I was instructed to sign my name as it appeared on the form, i.e. Sweet E. Jesus, instead of my normal chicken scratch. I was under the impression from reading these “sovereign citizen” threads that I could sign an “X” and it would still be a legal signature. The instruction to sign your name in a particular way is not a requirement imposed by law. It might be required by a bank or a lender or a particular company or just a persnickity officer of such. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/29 "2013-02-21T20:02:10Z")
I use my middle name for most things except where my government issue ID tells them how I must be addressed. My signature is (for example) a big loopy L Simpson. When I bought my house I had to sign Mona L Simpson which yes, felt very weird. What was worse was when I went to work for (highly regulated biomedical industry relying on donated body fluid to process into “medicines”) the persnickety administrative assistant started insisting I sign with the full first name. Finally I said ML Simpson is all they are going to get. I signed my name sometimmy signature is still L Simpson. ---
**Author:** ![sqplr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@sqplr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqplr)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/30 "2013-02-22T00:26:45Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The instruction to sign your name in a particular way is not a requirement imposed by law. It might be required by a bank or a lender or a particular company or just a persnickity officer of such. This is probably the case. My spouse and I just finished doing a real estate transaction in another state and we were both instructed to sign our names in a particular way even though that didn’t match our typed names in the documents. It was explained to us that if we signed a different way, the agents would have trouble getting the documents through the whole acceptance and filing process. ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2013, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897/31 "2013-02-23T09:07:24Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > I don’t have great penmanship and my signature always looked like it was made by a fifth grader. Then I got a job where I have to sign or initial a shitload of documents, so my signature today looks a lot different than it did say 15 years ago. But every now and then I have to sign a document with my full name, and it’s right back to the fifth grade. Doesn’t look much at all like my “normal” signature, having to think about adding that middle name or something messes with my brain. ha ha, I always sign my name in block print; but when my son was little and occasionally I would need to write a note if he was sick and missed school, it seemed to me that I ought to write it in cursive. Problem was, I had never used my cursive skill … My genuine excuse notes consequently looked just like the fake excuse notes I wrote in high school, lol. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-i-have-to-sign-my-whole-name/650897.md?page=1)