Which is more appropriate in an email?

To whom are is the e-mail being sent? If the message is at all formal or to someone you’ve never met in person, your second option would seem more appropriate. If it’s going to a coworker with whom you regularly correspond, your first option would seem to be adequate.

@CunningLinguist

Yes, that is my opinion too. I have seen both with the first one being more prominent and so I felt the need to inquire.

My first and last names are in my e-mail account names. Even so, when I e-mail someone I don’t know personally or know only formally and in a business context (say, a prospective client sending me an inquiry), I always use first and last names. That’s a matter of courtesy.

To friends and family I use only my first name.

If my e-mail account name were essentially anonymous, I would always include both first and last names when writing to anyone I wasn’t certain would know my account name, even if we’d corresponded before.

I don’t like getting a chummy message from someone with an account name like “linda54321’ or ‘mrcool’ who just signs off “Linda” or “Joe” and expects me to know them if they haven’t given me a clue. As far as I’m concerned, that is spam.

In this context, you can’t go wrong giving too much information, but you can certainly go wrong giving too little.

It depends on how well you know the person you are communicating with.

@marinelife

I think I have had a Professional setting in mind. I am going to edit that into my question.

@raven860 My answer would still be the same. There are some people that I know well that I work with that I just sign marinelife. Usually over my standard signature block which has my full name, the company name, and my title.