This week while signing a cheque I suddenly started thinking about signatures, and the fact that when I get married I will have to come up with a new signature. Up until now I hadn’t thought about it. It feels a bit strange that I will have to make up a new signature – as I have been using my current one for so many years. Come to think of it I can’t remember when I started to use a signature. How old are you when you start signing for things?! I can’t remember sitting down at the age of 10 or so thinking ‘right, I need to come up with a creative signature’. I wonder if I practised a few different versions, or if I just went with whatever came out when I put pen to paper?
While pondering this I went on to Wikipedia (the fountain of all knowledge) where it states that a signature is something that a person ‘writes on documents as a proof of identity’ and is not to be confused with an autograph which ‘is chiefly an artistic signature’. Right – so can I have an artistic signature? I don’t want it to look boring!
When I marry I will be Laura Jane Durrant (that is actually the first time I have written that!). My signature at the moment is L J Tremelling written in quite a swirly way. Do I keep the style and just change the surname? Or do I go for something totally different?! When planning a wedding a new signature is not top of my list of things to plan/worry about. But now I have thought about it, it is definitely something I need to think about.
It feels strange that I only have just over a year left as a Tremelling. I like my Cornish name – it stands out, and I am proud of my Cornish background. It has an early medieval English origin, and is a locational name from Tremelling, a place in the parish of St. Erth, Cornwall. Tre means settlement and melling means miller. So my surname means house of the miller. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor. My granny always said you can tell a Cornish surname by the rhyme: “By Tre, Pol, and Pen, Ye may know most Cornish men".
Changing surname will be strange, but at least I have a nice one to change to. I like Durrant. At school I was always the last to be called, as my name started with T. I am moving up the alphabet! Imagine if your future husband had a surname Pratt, or something similar!
Right, that is enough rambling from me. I am off to practice my new signature!
xx
