Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Dave in San Marcos writes to comment on our “How to Address an Envelope to a Married Couple Minicast” () in which Emily explained how she was uncomfortable addressing thank-you letters to “Mr. and Mrs. John Smith.” Emily though Mrs. Smith deserved to have her first name in there, too.

Dave says, “I have a simple solution for Emily of San Diego. It does not solve the larger problem, but because she has a check, she can simply address the letter to the names exactly as they appear on the check. If it a joint account, most likely the preferences of the account owners will be reflected in the way they have chosen to have their checks printed. An alternative would be to address the correspondence to the name on the signature line, thus giving thanks to that individual who actually wrote the check.”

That's possible, Dave, but people will often get their checks printed in a way that masks their full name so that a someone couldn't forge their signature on stolen checks.

Further, checks for joint accounts often have the man and the woman's name printed on separate lines, which is something Emily already rejected.

Also, we're not sure there's a guarantee that anyone considers the name on a check to be the one perfect place to make their naming preferences known.

Finally, as you say, two names may be on the check but perhaps only one party is giving the money. Your signature line idea is pretty good, though the problem is still not completely solved, we think.