When I was taught to write, many, many moons ago, creating a personal signature was never given much importance. My own effort is a fairly legible approximation of my name, and it hasn’t changed in at least 30 years.
But in Chile, and I would guess in most Latino countries, elaborate, convoluted signatures are common, often bearing no resemblance to the name of the signatory, in what I guess is a basic anti-fraud precaution.
This has become a problem recently, as both banks we have current accounts with are refusing to cash our cheques, alleging the signatures are “wrong”. Even the absence of a minuscule dot seems sufficient grounds for rejection, they allow no latitude at all for normal variation.
I can only suppose that this excessive zeal has been triggered by an increase in cheque fraud, on a par with all the other criminal activity we have seen over the last few years.