An ex-spouse payor insists on writing his wife support checks showing her first name only as the payee. The bank refuses to accept them. Is there a reason she cannot just write in her last name on the check and deposit it? The check is always preprinted, so it would be obvious the last name was not printed as well. Must the bank accept this? Is the check as written in violation of some rule?
Other than the rule against doing foolish things, there's no violation. The problem is that anyone who happens to share that first name could pick up the check and cash it.
There would not be anything legally wrong with the intended payee's completion of the check by adding her last name. The Uniform Commercial Code states that completion of a check that doesn't change the intent of the drawer is not an unallowed alteration.
The problem, of course, is that anyone seeing such an obvious addition to the check might have reason to question it. That can lead to misunderstandings and might even frustrate the purpose of the check, payment of the support obligation.
If the ex-wife were to drag her ex-husband back into court in an attempt to get him to quit his apparently spiteful behavior, the court would take a very dim view of the ex-husband's sense of humor. If she can convince her bank to accept the checks that she completes with her last name, she'll end up the winner at no cost to herself, at least until her ex-husband comes up with some other ploy to play his control games with her mind.
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Other than the rule against doing foolish things, there's no violation. The problem is that anyone who happens to share that first name could pick up the check and cash it.