Tell us your personal history through significant signatures in your past. How have you made your mark?

My signature has a lot to do with the A in my first name, Ashleigh. I usually make it a statement cursive letter and have the rest flow from there, smaller and typically less readable. I’m more of bold person, and I have always made my A stand out more than the rest, anything I leave my print on…you’ll be sure to see it, and probably not able to read the rest.

Sherie Ariel Mungo

I came into this world as Chere Patricia Persons, a name I would have until three years old. 
At three, I was adopted into my forever home and given my current name.

Since then, I have gone by several monikers: Sherie, Mungo, Ms. Mungo, Re-Re, and Professor Mungo; I have at one point or another provided a signature with them all. 
I’ve also answered to “Sherry” and “Sherice”; even people who I have known for years (like grandfathers) make this mistake. I’ve learned to live with it. 
As I’ve gotten more involved in social media, my name/signature has evolved to the darker sister and drariel, two names that reflect my ambitions and my racial/familial place in the world. 
I hope to add another signature to my repertoire one day: Mrs. Mungo-
Yet, no matter what my signature looks like, I remain me, and that is how I intend to leave my mark.

My signature is a text that represents who I am. Then again, it looks like a bunch of scribbles so trying to identify what I am is going to be impossible. The one on my driver’s license… I don’t even want to talk about that one, but considering I couldn’t see what I was writing, I feel a little better about myself. However, I feel like it illustrates a sense of leaving your mark on something, whatever you sign your signature on.

I think I got lucky with my name…or maybe my mom is just really good with words….see my name, my first and middle name at least, flow nicely. Apparently I’m named after my aunt since her name started with a J and one of my grandma’s aunts who was named Claire. Did i ever meet these people? No. They both died both I was born. I suppose it’s nice that my parents named me after relatives, but I kind of want to know if it’s because there was pressure for them to do so, or if they actually picked the names Jessica and Cliare and then just “said” I was named after these people. I don’t think i’ll ever ask them since my dad tends to get touchy about issues dealing with my relatives. Nevertheless, I think I got lucky, and honestly, if you’re going to have kids, make sure you give them nice or cool names, don’t let be THAT kid that gets made fun of for a name they didn’t pick.

Stock car legend Richard Petty lives his life and signs his name with a flourish.  I had a chance to interview him years ago while he relaxed playing horseshoes before a race. And the most lasting impression I received was that he described how he wanted his signature to be distinctive because he knew he’d be signing it a lot.  So he designed an elegant signature and practiced until it says what he wanted it to say.
See Petty’s signature at http://bit.ly/1wFyxpD
So I began to practice my signature and though it has not the flourish that Petty does; it’s got a nice dynamic flow.
Hmmm maybe I won’t post that online.

A signature can say a lot about someone. If you look at mine it says this guy can’t write in cursive, or this guys hand writing is absolute garbage or even was this written by a five year old? My signature may look like complete crap but it is how I leave my mark so I might as well learn to love it and you can all laugh at too :D

Signature Style…be it in my writing, clothing, or art, it’s something I’ve always craved. But when it comes to writing my own name on a dotted line, the goal has proven pretty elusive.

My husband calls my signature “boring.” Sigh. I know it’s true, but no amount of added loops or flourish seem to do the trick. I’ve practiced with various pens, dabbled in assured papers, but the result is the same: my name, in dubious cursive, on a line.

Embarrassing.

Especially for a writer. Who’s also an artist.

What kind of writer/artist can’t make an eye catching design out of their own name?

Because I really can’t accept the possibility that something purely functional and utilitarian could really be my Signature Style.

I went through a phase in undergrad where I wanted my signature to be just my initials with wavy squiggly lines in between, like C squiggles P squiggles. That seemed so sophisticated to me and my favorite professor signed her name that way.

Carmela… Yes, that’s my name as you all know. How many Carmelas do you know? Really think about it. Now, for all your Sopranos Fans out there, Tony’s wife does not count. This Daily Create is a little confusing but i’m to go with it. I’ve made my mark through my name. I was given the name “Carmela” by my father. His grandmother’s name was Carmela and she was born and raised in Italy. So yeah, i’m Italian. Surprised? You should be, Ever since i was in Kindergarden, i’ve always been remembered. Not many teachers, professors, parents, etc. can say they’ve encountered many Carmelas. Whenever i’m talked about (which shouldn’t be a lot) i’m remembered instantly. It’s not that i want to be remembered, because a part of me doesn’t want to be. Well, i do and i don’t. I enjoy having a name that isn’t so common anymore but it has its flaws. I mean, i don’t get those cool keychains with my name on it because they never have it. So…. I win and i loose. My name, like everyone else’s, is my mark.

My signature tells a story about myself. I know what it says because I wrote it, but the only way others can tell what it says is by watching me sign my signature; my handwriting is generally atrocious, my signature signage is indecipherable. My handwriting says I am in a hurry and that I have signed too many papers at this young age to take the time in making it look decent. My scrawl spells out “I am a journalist and don’t have time for this,” while the name behind says something different. I am unique, an Alison with one L, and named for my aunt. Elizabeth is stuck in the middle, but hardly makes it into the signature except for in the cases of deepest legality. Thoet tells the name of a family. The only other Thoets in the world are related to me. So I say a signature tells a story because if you put on your Sherlock hat, there is much you can deduce.

Despite being given the name Margaret Elizabeth at birth, I have always been called Maggie. Margaret Elizabeth sounds too much like a princess name to me and I am pretty far from being a princess. Over the years, I tried out different variations on my name, since Margaret Elizabeth was chosen so that I would have many options as to how I wanted to be signified. I’ve always stayed Maggie though. Being called Margaret is a great way of telling who knows me or takes a second to read an email I’ve sent and is definitely helpful in that respect, but the name is not me. My last name is very difficult to pronounce (hint: it rhymes with “cow”) and as much as I’d love to one day marry a guy and shed my last name for something less difficult, I’d also love to keep it and be myself. Maggie Stough is very much who I am and who I hope to remain.

I started out as Sandra Mardene Brown.
Sandy Brown is Little Orphan Annie’s dog–’nuff said about childhood playground dynamics.
I worked on being a professional novelist but worried that with a name like Sandra Brown, I’d never make it (and for those of you born some place where the New York Times bestseller list don’t shine, another Sandra Brown has become one of the top ranked romance writers of all time. Sigh.)
But I went on as Sandy Brown to become well known in my own world–you know–big frog, little pond.
At 44, I married a Jensen and changed my name to Sandy Jensen. Suddenly, I was alone. Facebook got invented, and no one could find me.
Genius struck, and I put the two halves of my life together into Sandy Brown Jensen.
My middle name got resuscitated when I needed a unique Twitter and Instagram handle; hence, @sandramardene.
See? It took the Age of the Internet to put all the parts of me all back together again!

Signatures are a funny thing. No matter what we normal, un-famous people are signing, we somehow act like we are signing the Declaration of Independence. I remember when I was a teenager in the 1980’s I wanted my signature to look professional, and “classy” if you will. So I tried to neatly and precisely raft each cursive letter every time. As the years went by I began to realize that nobody really cares about anyone’s signature. I started just signing my name in a manner that was easiest for me at the time. And so began the deterioration of my once professional and “classy” signature. In the 1990’s, I employed my first two initials and last name in an attempt to save time. In the 2000’s, I found even more time could be saved by dropping my middle initial and just using “J.Lundberg”. Something however, was still bogging me down. I then realized that my penmanship was still way too neat. So in the 2010’s  I began using the speedy cursive scribble. If it is good enough for doctors, it’s good enough for me.