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Should the tilde symbol (~) be used to sign your name? It seems quite commonplace on Internet forums but I don't believe I've ever seen it used in books.

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    It might be worth noting sites like Twitter that prefix user names with characters automatically in certain cases, such as with @ and #. The user isn't always in full control on the web. Do you have any examples?
    – Grant Thomas
    Apr 30, 2011 at 19:52
  • I've only saw that in Wikipedia...
    – nico
    Apr 30, 2011 at 19:55

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The hyphen, standing in a for a dash, is the more-common punctuation for signing and attributing quotes. - The Raven

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In Wikipedia, four tildes are used to sign a post. This character sequence will be recognised by the software and turned into the user name and a date stamp. This does not mean that a tilde is a valid character to sign your name elsewhere, web or paper.

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in the mathematics language the tilde means "equivalent to", so at the end of a signature it may not be proper. However it still looks nice I don't see anything wrong with it can't hurt to stand out and be creative, right? Also, what if it looks to some like it means you're equal to everybody. . . if you perceive it that way? Were all one anyway and if u put it after a smiley it looks like a funny goatee:)~

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  • I thought it meant approximately?
    – anongoodnurse
    Nov 21, 2014 at 6:02
  • @Medica: It appears that the tilde, like many, many symbols in mathematics, is used to represent several distinct concepts. (Even π is overloaded...) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde#Mathematics
    – herisson
    May 23, 2015 at 4:35
  • @sumelic - Thanks! I would never have known that. And thanks for the link.
    – anongoodnurse
    May 23, 2015 at 4:51

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