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Signature Analysis

Updated on April 22, 2012

Understanding personality and character from signature

Introduction to Signature Analysis

Your signature is even more significant than the way you write a capital I in judging how you want to be seen by the world at large. You are, in effect, saying "this is me" in the way you sign your name. Features such as size relative to your normal writing, relative sizes of let­ters within the signature, legibility, slant, direction and any embellishments are all important factors in the analysis.

But a signature on its own provides insufficient ma­terial for a graphologist to use in order to come up with a reliable assessment of personality.

The basic structure of people's signatures tends to become standardized during the later teens or early twenties, as adulthood beckons. It remains more or less the same for forty or fifty years at least, until old age or infirmity introduces hesitation and unsteadiness. At the same time, one's general style of writing may change, leaving great differences between the signature and any other words.

Why Signatures Change ?

Of course, signatures, too, may be changed. A woman will often take her husband's surname on marriage and will need to adjust to the different signature. A person who becomes famous may deliberately cultivate a more expansive signature to fit in with their image, or may be forced to create a signature if their public name differs from their real one.

In addition, some people who are often asked for their autograph develop a compressed or simplified signature in order to save time and effort. Thus it is quite common for personali­ties to have two different signatures - one for private purposes and another for their adoring public.

Another reason for signatures differing from other writing is that they are usually written faster because the writer will swing into a familiar pattern without needing to think. Only the most painstaking or pedantic of people (perhaps bank-managers or lawyers, who recognize the importance of a signature) may sign more slowly than they write.

For a similar reason - fast writing - many signatures are illegible. Quite a large proportion of these are of a wavy line or thread shape. This suggests a secretive writer, an uncaring writer or a hasty and unthinking writer. It is certainly bad manners to cultivate an illegible signature. When a signature is illegible but complex it might well indicate an excessive vanity, coupled with stand-offishness.

Identifying personality from the Size of Signature:

Where the signature is smaller than other words the person is trying to appear modest. This may be the result of a mild, self-deprecating personality; it may be a defence mechanism; it may show a genuine lack of self-esteem; or it may be a pose.

A signature where the letters are of comparable size to that individual's normal writing shows a sincere, modest and unpretentious person who is not concerned with self-image and is very objective about his or her own good and bad points. There may be a tendency towards complacency.

Signature analysis based on first and last names

Where the first name is emphasized by larger writing than for the surname, this may indicate that the person prefers informality (first name terms), was happiest in childhood (when that first name was perhaps more used), or, in the case of a married woman, was happier before marriage, using her maiden name, or even that the person prefers the first name or dislikes the surname for the same reason. A much enlarged or embellished first name is a mark of self-love.

On the other hand, if the surname is over-emphasized it is most probably for reasons of prestige.

What form of your name should you sign? Although there may be good individual reasons for a person using their name in full, in a signature this can indicate snob­bishness. (However, it may be for the purpose of better identification if it is a common surname.) When the initials only are used, this can suggest stand-offishness or a dislike of familiarity.

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