a list of e-mail sign-offs

mandydale — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 23:54:14 +0000

Recently, an article from The New York Times discussed the etiquette surrounding e-mail sign-offs. One man quoted in the article mentioned that he disliked the sign-off “Best,” because he felt “he had been snubbed.” This article got me thinking about how I sign-off my own e-mails, as I can often write upwards of a 100 e-mails a day to both professional and personal acquaintances. I was disappointed that the article did not list a wide array of sign-offs that could be used, so I searched for a list of sign-offs to reference if I wanted to spice up the endings of my emails. And while the article was widely mentioned by blogs, and some great suggestions were listed in the comment section here, I couldn’t find a decent list of suggested email sign-offs, so I am compiling one here. Roughly categorized by type of sign-offs, this list is certainly not inclusive, but could be used as a way to diversify if you are getting bored with the same old sign-off.

The formal sign-offs:

(Yours) faithfully,
(Yours) truly,
(Yours) sincerely,
(With) (Warm/Kind/Best) Regards,
(With) Best wishes,
Kindly,
Respectfully,
(All the) (very) Best,
Cordially,
Have a nice day/weekend/(insert holiday here)

The informal sign-offs:

From,
See ya,
Take care,
See you soon,
Talk soon
Thanks,
Later,
Warmly,
Bye,
Yours,

The UK style sign-offs (apparently care should be taken if you are not from the UK in using these):

Cheers,
Ta,
Toodles,

The close friends/family/lovers sign-offs:

Forever,
Love,
Lots of love,
Hugs,
Kisses,
Fondly,
xoxo

The foreign language signoffs:

Ciao,
Hasta,
Adiós,
Merci,
Salut,
Au revoir,
Arigato,
Gracias,

And the super informal and silly (again, care may be warranted when using these sign-offs):

Rock on
Peace
Peace out,
Over and out,
(insert name here)

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a list of e-mail sign-offs