Signing new name

[Cheyenne Skye]

Just wondering how difficult it was for everyone to adjust to signing their new name after legally changing it. Did you sit and practice it a lot? Have you slipped up and started signing your old name? Especially for those whose new name is vastly different than the old one. I suspect mine will not be too hard to get used to since I am keeping my initials the same.

[Angela Campbell]

My name change is in about a week, but I have been practicing it, with a first grade writing tablet LOL

[Jorja]

Believe it or not, after 30 years, on occasion I still sometimes will start to sign my old name.

[stefan37]

I changed my name from Stephen to Stephanie, so my signature did not change at all.

[Sue Too]

Some time ago, as many of us do, I created a femme name. After I created the name I called my credit card companies and asked to have cards issues on my account with my femme name. Been signing the femme name for several years. Besides, the way I write it, it is fun to write. Don't forget to dot your T's and cross your I's.

Susan in Phoenix

[JohnH]

If I ever get around toward transitioning to living completely as a woman, it would not be a big deal at all to changing my first name from "John" to "Johanna". At any rate I would still remain legally "John" with a M gender marker - I would have to complete a "one and same" form for legal documents.

Johanna (John)

[Michelle.M]

Just wondering how difficult it was for everyone to adjust to signing their new name after legally changing it. Did you sit and practice it a lot?

Actually, I did! Seemed silly at the time, but I needed to get the hang of it and develop a signature.


Have you slipped up and started signing your old name?

I did for a while, but now I actually have a little trouble even remembering my old name. Not that I have totally forgotten it, but I do have to pause to recall it. Kind of like that part of Star Wars where Luke is asking Ben Kenobi about some guy named Obi Wan Kenobi, and Obi Wan says “That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

What a strange feeling that is!

[Ann Louise]

I must've got lucky! Seeing how most signatures that I encounter are just scribbles beneath something printed, several years ago I started signing a signature that was comprised of my last name, only. I also made no pretense that it be legible (how many signatures actually are legible, anyway?), and I simply dropped signing my first name, still leaving my own, unique individual scrawl. When I had my legal name change it therefore had no effect whatsoever on my signature since I still have the same last name. I would suggest that you girls who are early on in transition and haven't made the name change yet to consider doing the same, just stop signing your first name on everything you sign from here on out. It's easy, fast, and there's nothing to learn after your hearing. All the best, Ann

[Shapeshiffter]

The only time I have a problem is if I think about it.

[I Am Paula]

My new signature was just a matter of adding one A. However, I've found that most women's signatures are nice neat cursive, and clearly legible. My signature looks like a drug addled lab monkey was given a sharpie. I'm trying to come up with something a little nicer, but I feel like a lovestruck teen writing my name over and over on the cover of my notebook.

With so many things to do, think about, plan, on beginning transition, who thought about their signature?

[sandra-leigh]

This is timely for me, as I started thinking about it a couple of days ago. I have not done anything with it, though. One of my considerations will have to be that my writing skills are getting worse. I have been progressively missing out on the last few letters of my last name, and I noticed a couple of days ago that I flubbed the last letter of my (short-ish) first name as well.

I have read that the hardest signatures to forge are the clear ones. Apparently people do not look closely at complicated signatures, so an approximate match will fool most people. But a clear smooth signature has to be reproduced quite precisely or people will notice, and forgers supposedly find that difficult to do, especially if they have to sign in front of someone.

[I Am Paula]

Yup, I worry about people forging my name to get at my overdraft.

[Angela Campbell]

In my experience no one ever checks any signatures anyway.

[Kimberly Kael]

I spent quite a bit of time refining a new signature as part of my name selection process. After all, if I was going to have to sign it day after day I might as well like the result! At virtually every meal out I'd wind up with my copy of the receipt covered in rehearsal signatures for a few weeks. I've never found myself starting to sign my old name, perhaps because the two signatures are wildly different. The old one was a truncated scrawl, missing letters and slanted backward as if I was left-handed. The new one is very flowing and legible. I suspect it has a lot to do with being very proud of who I am and no longer feeling distant from my own identity.

... and while most people ignore a signature, there are those random times when someone does a careful inspection. Usually while buying something trivial, like a bottle of water.

[Nicole Erin]

I am plenty used to my new name after 3 years but my signature is still kind of weird.
My male and female name signatures are vastly different.
I have not yet accidently started signing with my old name though.

[Rianna Humble]

I had to "invent" my signature the day I signed my name-change papers. I basically wrote my name and it has never been as legible since