Learn · email signature glossary

Email Signature Pronouns

TL;DR

Pronouns in an email signature are a short note of how the sender should be referred to (such as she/her, he/him, or they/them), usually placed next to or under the name.

Pronouns in an email signature are a brief statement of how to refer to the sender, written as she/her, he/him, they/them, or another set, and typically placed in parentheses after the name or on the line beneath it. The practice removes guesswork in written communication, where names alone often do not indicate gender, particularly across languages and cultures. Some signatures link the pronouns to an explainer page for readers unfamiliar with the convention.

Re: In practice

Why it matters

Email strips away the cues people use in person, so correspondents routinely guess pronouns from a name and sometimes guess wrong. Stating them removes that failure mode for everyone, not only for people whose pronouns are commonly mistaken; when colleagues with unambiguous names include theirs too, it normalizes the practice so no individual is singled out. For teams, the implementation question is usually whether the signature template has a pronouns field, and the good answer is an optional one: rendered cleanly when filled in, invisible when left empty, and never mandatory, since disclosure should stay a personal choice. Formatting is simple, matching the surrounding text or sitting one shade lighter, with no special styling needed.

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