How Do You Sign Your Emails?

I sign my emails like this:

“Best,

Jamey”

The other day it occurred to me that this is a bit of an odd way to sign an email.

Don’t get me wrong: I like “Best” quite a bit, and I’m sticking with it. It makes perfect sense of you know it’s short for “Best regards.”

But some people may not know that. For them, it’s probably pretty weird to see a superlative adjective as a signature. It really makes no sense in that contest. I might as well sign my emails “Curliest”.

I was curious about when I started using this signature, so I looked back at the oldest emails Gmail has on file for me (2006). Depending on the recipient, I used the following sign-off words. I take no responsibility for my 23-year-old self:

  • Thank you
  • Thanks!
  • Love
  • Oh kisses (it’s no excuse, but this was written to my girlfriend)
  • Kisses back at ya (girlfriend again)
  • (just my name)
  • (no signature at all, not even a name)
  • Take care
  • Have a good day!
  • I hope all is well
  • Good luck!
  • Later
  • Best wishes

I can’t imagine juggling so many sign-off words! Life is simpler now with just “Best” (and sometimes “Thanks”). Though it would have been an interesting life decision to go with “Oh kisses” on all emails, regardless of the recipient.

What’s your sign-off word of choice? Has it changed over time?

9 thoughts on “How Do You Sign Your Emails?”

  1. just about always “Thanks,” or “Thanks!” followed by my name, depending on my enthusiasm. i’m prone to overuse exclamation points.

    Reply
  2. For personal emails I usually go with just my name, unless I’m thanking someone, and then it’s a “thanks,” followed by my name. During an email conversation, after the first reply, I stop signing anything since the other person already knows I’m the one sending the email.

    When sending emails for the board game table company, I use “happy gaming!,” followed by my name, which seemed kind of cheesy to me at first, but it’s grown on me over time.

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  3. “Regards,
    Allen Chang”

    I’ve been using “Regards” for about a decade now. I used to go with “Kind regards” as part of my email signature but realised that I might be lying about the “kind” part depending on the content of the email :p

    The other thing that I do is I always use “Dear …,” to start my email. I know it’s very weird nowadays, and have been called out a few times by my close friends, but I’ve leaned into it and it’s now my thing.

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  4. I like to sign “Thank you for your time and help” followed by my name. I may also add my position and company information depending on who I am representing at the time I send the email.

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  5. I generally go with “Regards” or a holdover from my military days- “V/r,” (very respectfully). If it’s personal, I just sign my name.

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  6. I have no consistent go-to, instead opting to tailor the sign-off to the content of the email and its intended recipient.
    For a while during undergrad, I went through a phase in which the requirement for a sign-off word seemed so absurd to me that I decided to always use something utterly random. A sampling:
    – Cabbages and Kings,
    – Vorpel swords,
    – Belly button lint,
    – The same thing we do every day, Pinkie,
    – Colicky babies,
    – Trust the Geiko lizard,
    – Esters and Amides,
    – Trapezius is a mighty muscle indeed,

    …and so on. Maybe I should’ve gone with “Oh kisses.”

    Reply
    • I’ve enjoyed reading all of these variations, but these are fantastic. I kind of like just “Trapezius” by itself. It sounds dignified, like a sign of respect.

      Trapezius,
      Jamey

      Reply

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