MetaChat - Signing off emails with your initials--confusing? other thoughts?

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03 September 2013

Signing off emails with your initials--confusing? other thoughts? →[More:]For a while now I've been signing my emails with my initials (for sake of discussion, FML for First Middle Last). Ninety percent of the time I don't think twice about it.

But occasionally someone will refer to me by those initials in a reply email. Like "Hi FML, blah blah blah." That seems weird to me. Most people use First or Mr. Last in their replies, which is also what I do when the roles reverse. My email address shows my name spelled out, so it isn't a matter of ignorance.

So what's up with these people? Is it a passive-aggressive backlash against signing off with initials? Do some people (perhaps non-native English speakers) think I actually want to be called by my initials?

post by: mullacc at: 11:32 | 11 comments

I think it is a bit confusing for people who don't know you. Professionally, I sign off the way I'd like to be addressed. You can always speed this up with an automatic signature.

posted by bearwife 03 September | 11:44

My brother, initials MW, does his sideways, like so:

3
E

I think sometimes there's passive-aggressive backlash, but like anything personal in an office setting, the best way to deal with it is to ignore it completely.

When I (rarely) sign off with initials, I just use first-last. If I include the middle initial they spell "SEW" which could be confusing, so I avoid it. I try to get people in the office to address me as "Sammy," but in writing I use Sam or Samuel. A tangled web indeed.

posted by Hugh Janus 03 September | 12:45

I tend not to sign off work e-mails with my initials; it feels too casual, somehow. And I think some people might think I want to be called KAS, like I'm Mama Cass or something.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 03 September | 13:25

I rarely, rarely sign emails, work or otherwise. I figure the recipient already knows who they came from. If I ever sign, it's first/last, and sometimes my job title. But rarely any of that. Rarely a salutation of any sort, either.

posted by mrmoonpie 03 September | 13:39

I have a more formal email signature with my name spelled out that I use at work when emailing someone new.

posted by mullacc 03 September | 14:15

Within the library, I just use "M". I have an auto signature below my initials.

Within the university, I use my full first name.

posted by initapplette 03 September | 16:12

Depends entirely on the formality of the email, from full on, full names, rank, and title to no signature at all. I use initials on average until the point in the email exchange where we're having more of an IM conversation, then I drop it.

posted by The Whelk 03 September | 19:06

I figure that my name in my sig is enough so I don't sign at all.

posted by octothorpe 03 September | 20:16

My mom signs her emails to me "LM" as in Love, Mom.

posted by mullacc 03 September | 21:39

Unless it's substituting for a formal letter, i don't get people using letter conventions for an email. If it didn't have who it was for and who it is from, it wouldn't be happening. Unless it's an introduction or someone who doesn't understand email, I don't even use names.

Same with phone conventions for the most part. I can say a formal infodump faster than a Hail Mary, but if it's a friend, I only use conventions as a prank or joke.

Ahoy hoy.

posted by ethylene 04 September | 18:39

Since time immemorial I've been signing email with:

A.

When I started my current job I was briefly distressed to discover that my boss, whose first name also begins with A, does exactly the same thing. I considered changing, but then thought "they've already read the From line, so why worry?" So I kept doing what I've always done, and so did she, and everything's been fine.

posted by tangerine 05 September | 23:03

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