punctuation - Why put a period after your name in the closing of a communication/E-mail?

I'm from Ireland and I see this quite a bit, in letters and email and from different companies & countries — it doesn't matter. The only pattern that I can make out is that it seems to appear a lot with the shortened form of someone's name, e.g. Matt. instead of Matthew, Ed. instead of Edward. I have also noticed it when people use just their first name and not surname e.g. John. I'm still searching for a definitive answer, though.