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I am starting to work on end-of-year teachers' gifts and plan on making monogrammed note cards. A friend said I should do the last name initial for the cards but I was thinking of doing the first name initial. What would you prefer if you received a set of note cards as a gift?
I know this question has been asked before. From what I remember and after doing a quick search: when doing a single letter monogram there is no rule on which letter to use, it is appropriate to use either first letter of first name or last name. Just Rite Stampers did a whole series of blog posts on monogram etiquette, you can find it here. The last question on the post deals with your question. The post also links to other posts about monogram etiquette. Hope this helps.
__________________ Martha
"When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life." Jean Shinoda Bolen
Whole posts on monogram etiquette? Obviously I need to go read them since I never knew such a thing even existed - I have probably accidentally trampled on every rule of good monogram form there is.
To the OP, I'm going to take a gamble (w/o having yet read the etiquette), I'll go out on a limb and say for teachers' gifts - first initial. Either way, I'm sure they'll be appreciated.
Off to educate myself on monogram etiquette (thanks for the link, Martha)!
kaclarke....I agree there is no right or wrong response to your question.
But my response to your question in this particular situation would be to use the first letter of the teacher's sir name. Since this is for your child's teacher I would think it would be most appropriate to use first letter of their sir name. Your child would call their teacher by their sir name and not their first name. Yes, I'm assuming the gift would actually be given by the child and not the parent. In that case, I would doubt the child would even know their teacher's first name. If actually given by the parent, then anything you choose I feel would be appropriate.
Personally I would go for the first-name initial, or a combination of both. I'd find it weird if someone gave me something with an F on it. It wasn't till I read a similar thread a while back that I realised that is sometimes what people do. When I am embroidering monograms, I always use the first name.
I agree it's up to you. That being said I would rather have my first name initial on mine. Maybe do first if she is younger or last to be more formal is she is older. Or you could do a poll on here to see what people would rather receive.
Personally I would prefer my first initial, my preference is only because I am young and if I get married I would like to still be able to use the notecards (If I change my last name the cards would be of no use to me anymore).
But that's my personal preference, because no matter what someones first name will never change.
I hate to be a dissenting voice here but I'm a teacher (well I used to be, now I'm an Assistant Principal). If I give a thank you card or any kind of card to any of my students or their parents, I'd much prefer my last name initial. I'm not too keen on students referring to me by my first name, and they only know me as Mrs. Birus so a prominent "B" would work well. I actually have a set of note cards in my desk as we speak and they have my first inital "L" on them. I rarely use them unless the card is to another staff member because I'd rather not be so informal with a student or parent.
That's my $.02, but I'm sure she'll love whatever you give. We really do appreciate all our parents do for us! You'll never know how nice it is to have someone thank you!
As a former teacher, I also agree with lbirus. Students and most parents refer to the teachers by their last names. The thank you notes would be great to send to students who gave gifts at the end of the year or maybe parents who helped out in the classroom. I would think most teachers would prefer to have the last initial on there. This is a great gift, by the way. I never got anything handcrafted!
When I made monogrammed sets (of eight) last year - I made them half first initial and half last initial, that way they could use them casually or professionally.
When I made monogrammed sets (of eight) last year - I made them half first initial and half last initial, that way they could use them casually or professionally.
That is BRILLIANT!!!!! I think that's what I'll do for my daughter's preschool teacher!
Monogram question
