Is it ever correct for a woman to sign her name 'Mrs. John Doe?'

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 11 Aug 2005 06:32 PDT

Please let me know if this answers your question:

Married women whose husbands are alive may sign the husband's name
with the prefix Mrs: thus,
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. William Southey

But when the husband is dead the signature should be?
Yours sincerely,
Mrs. Sarah Southey. 

So when we receive a letter from a woman we are enabled to tell
whether she has a husband living or is a widow. A woman separated from
her husband but not a divorcee should not sign his name.

SEPO: Letter WritingPrinciples of Letter-Writing?Forms?Notes
http://www.sepo.net/books/english-grammar/letter-writing/


Best regards,
Rainbow

This seems quaint and old-fashioned.  It should be "Jane Doe".  Note
no title in a signature.

It may seem "old-fashioned" that a woman is known by her married name,
e.g.Mrs John Smith until she's a widow, but all these protocols
evolved for a reason.  She is the legal responsibility of her husband
and thus identified as such.   There are matriarchial societies where
the man is identifed in this manner.  I believe some female spiders
and other invertrebartes devour their mate,  which solves the problem
for them.
 
 This raises the question about such terminology in homosexual unions
( of either variety).

 No doubt it will change over the next 100 yaers.

Will change?  What country are we in?  If it's the U.S., it HAS
changed.  Elsewhere in the developed English-speaking world it cannot
be far behind.

If I were to sign my name as "Mrs" anything, then correctly I should
use Mrs. HisFirstname HisSurname.

However, most government forms (at least in Australia, and when
travelling) are not set up to allow me to do this: they ask for
surname, first name/s (mine)and honorific; so that I am taxed and I
travel as Mrs. MyFirstname HisSurname.

This seems to have become the norm.

My preferred signature off line is MyFirstname HisSurname (no
honorific. I don't use the US convention of MyFirstname
MySurname-HisSurname because the two names create an unfortunate
phrase when put together !!!

Online I use a nickname.

In Germany, a woman would never sign or designate herself as Mrs. with
his firstname, and maybe not with his last name, since it it now
possible and frequent that she retains her own  - and possible that he
takes her surname  - or either doubles up: Schmidt-Müller or
Müller-Schmidt.  Apparently in Italy, it is also quite common that
women retain their own surname.
Angy-ga, you have got us intrigued.

Hyphenated surname, although used by some married women, in the U.S.
is not the "convention".  Many women still take their husband's name. 
Many keep their own name.  In my observations, hyphenation is actually
not very common.

At any rate when SIGNING, one should use first name (middle name or
initial if desired) plus last name.  No Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, etc. 
Beyond the scope of the question: Anybody who would dare use Dr., PhD,
CPA, etc. in their signature is a pompous ass.