Advice On A Signature

[lynxcat]

my signature has become unacceptable to me. i want advice on how to change it.

for years now, it's been unreadable even to myself --- just two squiggly lines, with random and inconsistent squiggles, never the same in any two samples; it can't really be said to identify me in any real sense. which, i suppose, tells us something about the value and import of hand-written signatures in this day and age, that i've never once had it questioned. but never mind that...

i want a readable, distinctive, signature, and i've pretty much given up on it being quick to produce. if i try to sign quickly, i get two squiggly lines. slowing down is clearly called for, no matter how long the line behind me. but if i sign something readably, then it will no longer in any way resemble the squiggly lines that besmirch adorn everything from my driver's license to my passport. that'd change in time as documents aged out and were replaced, but there's that meantime.

i don't really think that the difference between my recorded-as-official signatures and any new version i switch to will be challenged. if that made sense, nothing i've signed in the last fifteen years and more would have gone unchallenged, which it all has. but if neither readability nor consistency nor replicability matter in a signature --- they don't, or mine would not fly --- then how artistic can i get and not have people think me a lunatic?

can i sign my name in Tolkienian tengwar? it'd be readable --- well, to me at least, because i'm just that geeky --- and it'd sure be prettier than two random squiggles. it'd be distinctive, and barring deliberate forgers, unique --- considering my fairly unique name, such a signature would probably be globally unique in recorded history. but it would also be recognizable as a non-Latin writing system not clearly belonging to any commonly used language, not something a person of my ethnicity might natively speak.

somebody could argue that they can't read it. i doubt very much that anyone would, because nobody (not even i) can read my current one, and i've not had that one challenged. besides which, some folk sign their names in Hangul or Kanji; i doubt they get challenged much in the U.S. midwest, surely?

is this a doable or sensible notion, or am i off my rocker and should go back to bed?

[Brian C]

Do what you want. It's your signature.

 

 

[I like mango cheesecake]

I have two signatures, both semi legible. Sometimes I interchange them depending on how I feel that day. The are not scribbles and have flow and rhythm to them. Practice different sigs on paper till you get what you like.

[Mags]

I think making your mark in scribbles, figures or Spencerian script it's all up to you. Good luck as you redefine your signature.

Edited July 27, 2014 by Mags

[Runnin_Ute]

This is going to be a labor of love (?), just try a number of different things.

 

When I was a kid - probably junior high school - I did just that. I saw how my dad signed his and since we both have the same middle name/initial decided to adopt something similar in how I wrote that part of my name. It is different enough to be unique to me, but similar enough to his to show a "family" resemblance if nothing else.

 

Perhaps finding and seeing someone else's signature and incorporating elements of that into your own like I did is the way to go.

[D B Holtz]

"i don't really think that the difference between my recorded-as-official signatures and any new version i switch to will be challenged. "

 

I've been working the last three years at relearning cursive, and have been using my improved handwriting for my signature. I had my new signature challenged (creating an awkward situation), and ended up having to sign a new signature card at the bank. Other accounts are not as accessible, so I still use the nearly-illegible version for those. You might want to make some "official" changes where you can.

 

DB

[DaveBj]

My signature has been mutating over the years, which is to say that the current sig is different from what it was 10 years ago and considerably different from what it was 20 years ago. That said, it has always been legible, and it has always been my "payroll signature" (first name, middle initial, last name), which was a habit I picked up in the military. Recently in some contexts (ATM/POS signature screens, credit card receipts, etc.) I have shortened it to first two initials and last name. I have never been challenged.

 

Bottom line: As has been said, it's your sig, do what you want, seriously. If you want to take five minutes to make a work of art, do it. If you want to do a two-line scrawl, do it. Whatever cranks your tractor.

[KellyMcJ]

Jumping into an old thread here, because I'm considering doing the same. My signature has morphed into something illegible (and does not currently match what's on my driver's license even) just through constantly having to sign things.

 

I have to sign things daily at work and I'm afraid to suddenly pop up with a legible cursive signature for fear it will be challenged.

 

On the other hand, my signature has changed so much in the past five years that it could be challenged any day now.

[Sabin]

Can you show as a sample?

[KellyMcJ]

Can you show as a sample?

I'd rather not for security reasons (although maybe I'm just paranoid). Suffice to say the only letter that kind of appears is a K. The rest is loops and scribbles.

[lynxcat]

for what it's worth, i did go ahead and switch to the tengwar-style signature. nobody's ever challenged it, not even on the (very rare) occasions it's been noticed at all.

 

granted, i've never yet signed anything particularly important or significant with it (legally or financially); mostly paycheck stubs for deposit and credit card receipts for everyday purchases, that sort of thing. so far, the only drawback i've had is that i've still not managed to speed up the new signature to the pace of the old, unreadable, double squiggle. i've taken to only writing out my given name in the tengwar, which is shorter and faster while still unique.

 

that, and a deep disillusionment in how important signatures are in modern society. i thought they mattered, to the point i actually asked for advice before changing mine. turns out i could probably spit on the dotted line and get away with it... i've so far only heard one, anecdotal, story of somebody having their signature challenged; and that was a juvenile joker who took to using a crude outline of male genitalia for theirs. so long as you don't sink to that level, nobody cares.

[Newjelan]

...i've so far only heard one, anecdotal, story of somebody having their signature challenged; and that was a juvenile joker who took to using a crude outline of male genitalia for theirs. so long as you don't sink to that level, nobody cares.

It's true, he lives in Melbourne, Australia. He initially did it as a "joke" (juvenile is the right word) for his Uni ID and as it wasn't noticed, he started doing it on everything, including his driver's licence. After a few years it was finally noticed and challenged and now he's changed it apparently. The issue was not the symbol but that it could be easily forged as it wasn't unique. (It was in the newspaper a couple of months ago.)

 

This thread has given me the desire to change my signature. I developed one when I was about 14 and really bored in class at school. I still use it today and it's pretty good even though my handwriting today is completely different (& much better than when I was 14.). However, through my business I regularly sign tender documents and contracts (~20 signatures per document) and sometimes I forget how to sign my name. Not to mention, that it's likely stored on the systems of 100+ organisations. So now I'm going to have some fun making a new one.

[alexander_k]

It's true, he lives in Melbourne, Australia. He initially did it as a "joke" (juvenile is the right word) for his Uni ID and as it wasn't noticed, he started doing it on everything, including his driver's licence. After a few years it was finally noticed and challenged and now he's changed it apparently. The issue was not the symbol but that it could be easily forged as it wasn't unique. (It was in the newspaper a couple of months ago.)

 

I love the reasoning: we don't mind what you do but you should do it in a unique way. At least he could have tried to get better at drawing it, develop some unique perspective.

[KellyMcJ]

 

This thread has given me the desire to change my signature. I developed one when I was about 14 and really bored in class at school. I still use it today and it's pretty good even though my handwriting today is completely different (& much better than when I was 14.). However, through my business I regularly sign tender documents and contracts (~20 signatures per document) and sometimes I forget how to sign my name. Not to mention, that it's likely stored on the systems of 100+ organisations. So now I'm going to have some fun making a new one.

I sometimes forget how to sign my name too. My signature has changed so much I worry as my signatures are subject to FDA and ISO audits. If it isn't recognizeable as "me" it could cause a lot of problems... 15 years from now.

[colormyalphabet]

Do what you want. It's your signature.

 

 

that signature is inspirational

Edited February 3, 2016 by mynamesricky

[SmurfK]

Well, signature it's just a formality. Legally, a signature can't be tied to an individual by it's particular form. In some specific cases, when someone, in an court wants to find out if an written note it's written by a specific individual, it's all a matter of graphology, where the specific aspects of the handwriting are compared, and same goes for signatures. The characteristics of that specific handwriting are compared, and not the general form of what you scribble.

 

You can pretty much use a different signature every day. As long as you could state if that was signed by you or not, it shouldn't be any problem. But it can be hard to track by you. If someone indeed go ahead and forge your signature, you might be in a position where you couldn't remember if you signed that paper or not. That's why, in general, it's good to have an similar signature in all the paperwork you sign. I often sign in the name of other people, if i'm entitled to do so. There's the only variation, i just ad an / in front of my signature in those cases.

[inkstainedruth]

Interesting thread. However, it occurred to me (and apparently to nobody else who's posted so far) that changing your signature *could* have an unforeseen consequence.

Suppose you do change your signature -- what happens when you have to sign something (a bill, a credit card receipt) and it gets challenged for being too different from your old signature?

Writing with fountain pens has gotten me back into writing in cursive, but my signature itself hasn't really changed all that much from what it was when I printed nearly everything (and is much more upright and looping than my cursive hand, which has a lot of un-looped and disconnected ascenders and descenders). But it could be an issue if I were to really start to go through some of the penmanship books I've picked up over the last couple of years.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: My husband's handwriting is atrocious and his signature a scrawl that isn't the same from one time to the next -- he had trouble at one job a couple of years ago when signing the contract, and the company's lawyer objected that it wasn't even the same from one page to the next....

Edited March 7, 2016 by inkstainedruth

[SmurfK]

Suppose you do change your signature -- what happens when you have to sign something (a bill, a credit card receipt) and it gets challenged for being too different from your old signature?

 

No one can challenge that. If someone is so dumb in doing that, you just have to say "i signed that paper" and you're done. You can probably ask for some compensation for the trip to the courthouse or where did they challenge your signature. As i said, legally, your signature it does not have any force by how it's shaped, it only proves that you took notice of that specific paper and only your act of signing the papers have legal power, not the mark itself.

 

ETA: My husband's handwriting is atrocious and his signature a scrawl that isn't the same from one time to the next -- he had trouble at one job a couple of years ago when signing the contract, and the company's lawyer objected that it wasn't even the same from one page to the next....

 

That lawyer was overly-bureaucratic. Especially as a lawyer, he can act as an witness to the signing process. This is usually used when illiterate people are signing documents, he act as an witness mostly to make sure that the person that's signing those documents it's correctly informed about what those papers contain, and the person would just sign with an X or whatever sign they want, but also that that person signed those documents, so it does not make any sense for him to care if it's not the same signature from one page to another. He could have counter-signed each page. He probably did it anyway.

 

But yea, you might have some problems with some uninformed people. We all got used on having the same signature as far as we live, so it's just a normal thing to expect the same from the others. But legally, there's nothing to force you to adopt a specific signature or to keep the same signature, as the shape of it does not have any implications, only the act of you signing an document. These days, many contracts are signed by telephone, especially with phone or internet operators, i can't remember the last time i physically signed one of those contracts. I just give my accept on the phone. As far as legal implications go, my phone accept have exactly the same power as my signature.