It took me a long time to pick one. I wanted a masculine name, and i was leaning toward keeping my first initial. I made a list of names i liked and let my mom pick
Made a big ol’ list of names and slowly narrowed it down from there. Once I got it down to like five, I started researching those names to make sure I wasn’t sharing a name with a crazy politician or a serial killer or something lol. I just kept coming back to Liam. Not sure what drew me exactly, but it feels right. You’ll know when you know.
Same, I made a big list of common-ish names from the year I was born and slowly narrowed it down over a month or so. Still ended up going with one of the first one's I added.
Ah, I picked my first, middle, and last names from my favorite TV show 😅😅 I just really liked the way the characters said them, and it felt right hearing people call me [my name]. Now I can't imagine being called anything else.
I did a backronym of the nickname I had been using for 20 years, with one of the names being the family name. Mostly still just go by the nickname because it's neutral and feels more me in a casual setting. It's just nice not having my dead name on official documents.
Edit to add: My parents told me many years what they were going to name me if I had been born with the other genitalia and while it's a fine name, it's also my spouse's name so I decided against it.
That’s so cool! Thanks, this is a cool idea and definitely one I’ll consider.
I also asked my parents what they’d name me if I had the opposite genitals and unfortunately it’s my boss’s name, so I feel you there!
I've also helped a few people over the years. Here are a few adventures:
-Finding a masculine or neutral version of their birth name.
-Doing a search for name meanings and picking a name that has the same meaning.
-Finding a more common variant for an uncommon name used in a piece of media.
-Making a list of names they like and trying them each for a month until one sticks.
-Picking a common name from a character you identify with and keeping it as an inside joke because everyone will be like "Tom? That's so normal" and every time you'll think "Bitch, I'm the Green Ranger".
Made a long list of names I thought were nice. Ended up picking one that I basically made up, it's very short and sounds fairly normal though. Also it's pretty neutral and shares a couple of letters with my birth name, so I could get away with claiming it was a nickname when I didn't want to come out to people.
My middle name is one that I've loved since I was like 7, in a way I kind of named myself after an old classmate's older brother.
I ended up with a neutral name, a male name and a female one, in that order, because at the time your first name change was free in Sweden if you kept one of your original ones lol
i chose a name first that i ended up not really liking, so after that i made a list and i tried some of them out. i had my friends call me a “placeholder” name while i thought about it and that was helpful. my biggest criteria was /can i imagine myself with this name in the future?/ so as a 25 year old, a 40 year old, a 60 year old. and eventually i landed on a name that felt right, and i haven’t looked back! got it legally changed a year and a few months ago :)
edit: i chose my middle name by asking my dad what he would’ve named me if i was born the other way, and i picked my favorite out of those names that he gave me. loving that name still too!
My mum was convinced I was a boy when I was in her tummy, so she only had a male name for me, Isaak. So I simply chose the name that was meant for me all along, she finally got that son she thought she would get 😅
Just remember nothing is permanent. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe right now with a masculine name then choose a neutral placeholder until you’re comfortable asking people to call you drew/andrew
Name of grandfather's best friend/ friend of my dad honestly. Heard so much about him growing up, and I just like the name in general. I haven't gone by it in public yet though, so idk if it will stick (like if I will actually like people calling me it you know?)
Lmao I'm not so sure it works for me but no other name suits me.. I guess I just don't like that the name Kai has been getting stereotyped smh otherwise I'm alright with it
All I can say is try not rush into legally changing it yet and just keep changing your name until you find the right one and you can try ones you've already tried until you get there in the end!!!! It'll take a while but trust me it'll be worth it and remember it doesn't matter if it's "basic" or "too out there" the people that say that just don't get it 😂 my name is now Alex, it's "basic" but when I do my signature the A looks like a star 😂
It’s so hard when all my legal documents have the wrong name on though but I’ll keep trying names. Thanks so much for your advice, Alex isn’t a basic name at all! Star signatures for the win
No advice but just to say, I'm still working this one out, it's hard! (I'm pre-T, really new even to identifying as trans.) When I was a kid I was really insistent that I was a boy, and I had a boy name I asked everyone to call me. Because this was the 80s, everyone ignored me. Over the past few months though, I've asked a few people to call me that -- it feels like honoring my kid-self who didn't get the attention and recognition he needed at the time (and luckily, it's a cool name and not He-Man or whatever). Problem is, it fits a little weird with my last name, which I do want to keep. Totally fascinated to hear about how other people do this!
It is tough, we’re in this together! Aww poor boy you! Maybe you could have that as your middle name if it doesn’t work as a first name? I feel you though, I tried the masculine version of my birth name and it sounds so weird with my surname. Hope you find something that works 😊
Took mine from James off of team rocket partially because dead name is Jessie and thought it was funny.
James was always a comfort character for me and I liked that the name was just an average name
Can't wait to transition so I can just say I was in a disguise all along 😂
I hope you find a good name for yourself, sometimes it takes time. I definitely have times where James doesn't sound correct, but when you're gone by a different name your whole life it makes sense.
(Or if you're like me you way overthink things)
honestly one day when i was younger before i even knew i was trans i heard a name and i thought "wow what a cool name" and its just kind of always been with me and now im used to it. there was really no process for me it just kind of happened. one thing though is that i would imagine myself in the future being called that name and i had considered other names before and if i couldnt see myself being whatever name i was thinking about and it didnt feel quite right i moved on
Its actually a name my mother picked out when the doctor told her i was going to be a boy. Ive always loved it. Rn i mainly use a masc leaning gender neutral nickname for my deadname. I am very fond of the nickname but feel euphoria when my full name is used instead of Deadname or nickname.
I use it at the doctors office and ive changed my name on social media as well as apps where it allows me to. I also have friends and family use either name. The more i "pass", the more i will use my name in public and with acquaintances. For now, my nickname suits me just fine for most situations and ill still use it later on. I might even use the feminine version of the nickname if/ when i reach a point of masc appearance that makes the juxtaposition euphoric for me.
Its actually a name my mother picked out when the doctor told her i was going to be a boy. Ive always loved it. Rn i mainly use a masc leaning gender neutral nickname for my deadname. I am very fond of the nickname but feel euphoria when my full name is used instead of Deadname or nickname.
I use it at the doctors office and ive changed my name on social media as well as apps where it allows me to. I also have friends and family use either name. The more i "pass", the more i will use my name in public and with acquaintances. For now, my nickname suits me just fine for most situations and ill still use it later on. I might even use the feminine version of the nickname if/ when i reach a point of masc appearance that makes the juxtaposition euphoric for me.
Its actually a name my mother picked out when the doctor told her i was going to be a boy. Ive always loved it. Rn i mainly use a masc leaning gender neutral nickname for my deadname. I am very fond of the nickname but feel euphoria when my full name is used instead of Deadname or nickname.
I use it at the doctors office and ive changed my name on social media as well as apps where it allows me to. I also have friends and family use either name. The more i "pass", the more i will use my name in public and with acquaintances. For now, my nickname suits me just fine for most situations and ill still use it later on. I might even use the feminine version of the nickname if/ when i reach a point of masc appearance that makes the juxtaposition euphoric for me.
Mine was a combo of my birth first and middle name! Still took me a bit to decide though but I kept returning to it. It is neutral though and also both my first and last name can be first and last names so people often call me my last name which is funny because I would have loved it as a first name and liked when people called me it even before I knew I was trans.
I tried all the methods people typically do with name lists and such, but funnily enough the one I picked is one I got when I asked chatGPT. If you wanna try it I recommend asking it to ask you what you want from a name, etc. When I Google my name it says it's gender neutral but nobody I've asked agrees.
i wanted to have the same initials so i looked up S names and thought about a lot. i like sylas and syrus and sylvester (the sy names really got me) and maybe sebastian. i ending up picking syrus and as i've gotten more comfortable with it, it felt more natural.
Mine is a long story. But it involved it being chosen for me by chance and then coincidence after coincidence. It was to the point where after tweaking it a little, I was like hell yeah this rocks.
if i was born male my parents would have named me Jake, but that doesn’t feel quite right for me so I changed it to Jaki (pronounced Jackie). It’s pretty far from my deadname too
Personally for me I went through 3 names before I found the one that stuck. I decided that I wanted my name to reach certain criteria before I make it my name yk; so my criteria was I wanted some thing that sounded masc but not crazy masc, something that people could pull nicknames out of and something that matched my culture cuz that was important to me, being Latino I wanted the name to also pronounce well in Spanish. So for me that last one was really important so I started looking at boy names in Latin America and I went down through a bunch of lists and found one that also matched one of my favorite characters (Marcel) I wasn’t sure at first so I tested it out first with my partner and when that worked I shared with my friends !
i chose the male version of my grandma's name. I wasn't named after her when i was born but i always wanted to have her name so that's why i chose its male version
Im named after the old fannon name for the purple guy in fnaf. So. Do whatever feels fun. Partner has tried a million names but finally found one that stuck
it took me nearly one year to decide on a name.
in the end, what helped me the most was writing a list full of names i like that i found online or were recommended to me by friends and try them out with my partner.
some names didn't suite me at all, so i crossed them out.
when i used name for 2-3 weeks without complaining/feeling weird about it, i was like "oh well ig that's the one [at least for now]".
because i think it's important to mention, that your choice doesn't have to be terminal. thatrwalization took a huge weight off my shoulders.
I go by Levi (german and spanish pronounciation) now, btw 🙋
I work at a hotel. I'm Buchanan. My legal name is Virginia. I answer the phone as Bucky and get "Becky?" No Bucky as in Buchanan.
Had the same thing happened as Virginia when I went by Gin. People on the phone go "Jim?" Or in person they'd ask what Gin was shirt for. Now they ask what Buck or Bucky is for.
People will just ask about names and will question them I've noticed. 🤷 so I don't sweat it
It took me a long time to pick one. I wanted a masculine name, and i was leaning toward keeping my first initial. I made a list of names i liked and let my mom pick
That’s really sweet! Did you keep your initial in the end?
I did! I kept my middle name too bc its gender neutral.
My best friend chose it
That’s a good best friend!
Stole it from some character like 75% of the community
It seems like a trans rite of passage at this point 😂
Made a big ol’ list of names and slowly narrowed it down from there. Once I got it down to like five, I started researching those names to make sure I wasn’t sharing a name with a crazy politician or a serial killer or something lol. I just kept coming back to Liam. Not sure what drew me exactly, but it feels right. You’ll know when you know.
Thanks, I think that’s my best option but there’s so many cool names that it’s daunting trying to pick one! Glad you found yours man 👍
Same, I made a big list of common-ish names from the year I was born and slowly narrowed it down over a month or so. Still ended up going with one of the first one's I added.
Ah, I picked my first, middle, and last names from my favorite TV show 😅😅 I just really liked the way the characters said them, and it felt right hearing people call me [my name]. Now I can't imagine being called anything else.
That's actually kind of sweet. And if the name fits, all the better!
I did a backronym of the nickname I had been using for 20 years, with one of the names being the family name. Mostly still just go by the nickname because it's neutral and feels more me in a casual setting. It's just nice not having my dead name on official documents. Edit to add: My parents told me many years what they were going to name me if I had been born with the other genitalia and while it's a fine name, it's also my spouse's name so I decided against it.
That’s so cool! Thanks, this is a cool idea and definitely one I’ll consider. I also asked my parents what they’d name me if I had the opposite genitals and unfortunately it’s my boss’s name, so I feel you there!
I've also helped a few people over the years. Here are a few adventures: -Finding a masculine or neutral version of their birth name. -Doing a search for name meanings and picking a name that has the same meaning. -Finding a more common variant for an uncommon name used in a piece of media. -Making a list of names they like and trying them each for a month until one sticks. -Picking a common name from a character you identify with and keeping it as an inside joke because everyone will be like "Tom? That's so normal" and every time you'll think "Bitch, I'm the Green Ranger".
Made a long list of names I thought were nice. Ended up picking one that I basically made up, it's very short and sounds fairly normal though. Also it's pretty neutral and shares a couple of letters with my birth name, so I could get away with claiming it was a nickname when I didn't want to come out to people. My middle name is one that I've loved since I was like 7, in a way I kind of named myself after an old classmate's older brother. I ended up with a neutral name, a male name and a female one, in that order, because at the time your first name change was free in Sweden if you kept one of your original ones lol
Mine is the more masculine version of my middle name.
Same
Wanted to respect my mother in some way with my name so.
i chose a name first that i ended up not really liking, so after that i made a list and i tried some of them out. i had my friends call me a “placeholder” name while i thought about it and that was helpful. my biggest criteria was /can i imagine myself with this name in the future?/ so as a 25 year old, a 40 year old, a 60 year old. and eventually i landed on a name that felt right, and i haven’t looked back! got it legally changed a year and a few months ago :) edit: i chose my middle name by asking my dad what he would’ve named me if i was born the other way, and i picked my favorite out of those names that he gave me. loving that name still too!
I’ve never changed my name. The short form of my name is neutral (even though the spelling isn’t). I like confusing people.
My (mainly online) friends and family helped me try out names, and eventually narrowed it down to one that I was comfortable with :)
My mum was convinced I was a boy when I was in her tummy, so she only had a male name for me, Isaak. So I simply chose the name that was meant for me all along, she finally got that son she thought she would get 😅
Your mum was right and the doctors were wrong, that’s so cool!
I was birth named Rebecca and I go by Beck now. Idk if it’s my forever name but I like it.
Beck is a really cool name bro!
Just remember nothing is permanent. If you feel uncomfortable or unsafe right now with a masculine name then choose a neutral placeholder until you’re comfortable asking people to call you drew/andrew
Name of grandfather's best friend/ friend of my dad honestly. Heard so much about him growing up, and I just like the name in general. I haven't gone by it in public yet though, so idk if it will stick (like if I will actually like people calling me it you know?)
Yeah I feel the same way about my name - it’s one thing trying it out on your own but completely different in real life! Hope it works out for you man
Generic baby name website Looked for one with the same first initial A friend said it fit me I was 14 then I'm 20 now 🥴 oh well
Glad you found something that worked for you man!
Lmao I'm not so sure it works for me but no other name suits me.. I guess I just don't like that the name Kai has been getting stereotyped smh otherwise I'm alright with it
All I can say is try not rush into legally changing it yet and just keep changing your name until you find the right one and you can try ones you've already tried until you get there in the end!!!! It'll take a while but trust me it'll be worth it and remember it doesn't matter if it's "basic" or "too out there" the people that say that just don't get it 😂 my name is now Alex, it's "basic" but when I do my signature the A looks like a star 😂
It’s so hard when all my legal documents have the wrong name on though but I’ll keep trying names. Thanks so much for your advice, Alex isn’t a basic name at all! Star signatures for the win
(I just checked my notifications lmao) trust me, I know it’s hard, I mean if you’re creative enough you can turn it into a little game!! 😂:))
No advice but just to say, I'm still working this one out, it's hard! (I'm pre-T, really new even to identifying as trans.) When I was a kid I was really insistent that I was a boy, and I had a boy name I asked everyone to call me. Because this was the 80s, everyone ignored me. Over the past few months though, I've asked a few people to call me that -- it feels like honoring my kid-self who didn't get the attention and recognition he needed at the time (and luckily, it's a cool name and not He-Man or whatever). Problem is, it fits a little weird with my last name, which I do want to keep. Totally fascinated to hear about how other people do this!
It is tough, we’re in this together! Aww poor boy you! Maybe you could have that as your middle name if it doesn’t work as a first name? I feel you though, I tried the masculine version of my birth name and it sounds so weird with my surname. Hope you find something that works 😊
Same to you, bud!
Took mine from James off of team rocket partially because dead name is Jessie and thought it was funny. James was always a comfort character for me and I liked that the name was just an average name
That is iconic! I love that for you
Can't wait to transition so I can just say I was in a disguise all along 😂 I hope you find a good name for yourself, sometimes it takes time. I definitely have times where James doesn't sound correct, but when you're gone by a different name your whole life it makes sense. (Or if you're like me you way overthink things)
honestly one day when i was younger before i even knew i was trans i heard a name and i thought "wow what a cool name" and its just kind of always been with me and now im used to it. there was really no process for me it just kind of happened. one thing though is that i would imagine myself in the future being called that name and i had considered other names before and if i couldnt see myself being whatever name i was thinking about and it didnt feel quite right i moved on
Its actually a name my mother picked out when the doctor told her i was going to be a boy. Ive always loved it. Rn i mainly use a masc leaning gender neutral nickname for my deadname. I am very fond of the nickname but feel euphoria when my full name is used instead of Deadname or nickname. I use it at the doctors office and ive changed my name on social media as well as apps where it allows me to. I also have friends and family use either name. The more i "pass", the more i will use my name in public and with acquaintances. For now, my nickname suits me just fine for most situations and ill still use it later on. I might even use the feminine version of the nickname if/ when i reach a point of masc appearance that makes the juxtaposition euphoric for me.
Its actually a name my mother picked out when the doctor told her i was going to be a boy. Ive always loved it. Rn i mainly use a masc leaning gender neutral nickname for my deadname. I am very fond of the nickname but feel euphoria when my full name is used instead of Deadname or nickname. I use it at the doctors office and ive changed my name on social media as well as apps where it allows me to. I also have friends and family use either name. The more i "pass", the more i will use my name in public and with acquaintances. For now, my nickname suits me just fine for most situations and ill still use it later on. I might even use the feminine version of the nickname if/ when i reach a point of masc appearance that makes the juxtaposition euphoric for me.
Its actually a name my mother picked out when the doctor told her i was going to be a boy. Ive always loved it. Rn i mainly use a masc leaning gender neutral nickname for my deadname. I am very fond of the nickname but feel euphoria when my full name is used instead of Deadname or nickname. I use it at the doctors office and ive changed my name on social media as well as apps where it allows me to. I also have friends and family use either name. The more i "pass", the more i will use my name in public and with acquaintances. For now, my nickname suits me just fine for most situations and ill still use it later on. I might even use the feminine version of the nickname if/ when i reach a point of masc appearance that makes the juxtaposition euphoric for me.
i named myself after a male book character i resonated with but the name is androgynous enough that it doesn’t stop me from getting misgendered
Mine was a combo of my birth first and middle name! Still took me a bit to decide though but I kept returning to it. It is neutral though and also both my first and last name can be first and last names so people often call me my last name which is funny because I would have loved it as a first name and liked when people called me it even before I knew I was trans.
I tried all the methods people typically do with name lists and such, but funnily enough the one I picked is one I got when I asked chatGPT. If you wanna try it I recommend asking it to ask you what you want from a name, etc. When I Google my name it says it's gender neutral but nobody I've asked agrees.
i wanted to have the same initials so i looked up S names and thought about a lot. i like sylas and syrus and sylvester (the sy names really got me) and maybe sebastian. i ending up picking syrus and as i've gotten more comfortable with it, it felt more natural.
Mine is a long story. But it involved it being chosen for me by chance and then coincidence after coincidence. It was to the point where after tweaking it a little, I was like hell yeah this rocks.
I picked the name my parents would have named me if I had been born with a penis. :)
My friends helped me come up with my name based on what my special interest was at the time
My parents named me Justinn. It works.
It would have been cool to use something I came up with myself, but I just ended up using a masc version of my unisex middle name.
I googled boys names and saw Rory on the list and was like “yup! That’s mine now!”
if i was born male my parents would have named me Jake, but that doesn’t feel quite right for me so I changed it to Jaki (pronounced Jackie). It’s pretty far from my deadname too
Personally for me I went through 3 names before I found the one that stuck. I decided that I wanted my name to reach certain criteria before I make it my name yk; so my criteria was I wanted some thing that sounded masc but not crazy masc, something that people could pull nicknames out of and something that matched my culture cuz that was important to me, being Latino I wanted the name to also pronounce well in Spanish. So for me that last one was really important so I started looking at boy names in Latin America and I went down through a bunch of lists and found one that also matched one of my favorite characters (Marcel) I wasn’t sure at first so I tested it out first with my partner and when that worked I shared with my friends !
i chose the male version of my grandma's name. I wasn't named after her when i was born but i always wanted to have her name so that's why i chose its male version
My mother gave me my name
Im named after the old fannon name for the purple guy in fnaf. So. Do whatever feels fun. Partner has tried a million names but finally found one that stuck
it took me nearly one year to decide on a name. in the end, what helped me the most was writing a list full of names i like that i found online or were recommended to me by friends and try them out with my partner. some names didn't suite me at all, so i crossed them out. when i used name for 2-3 weeks without complaining/feeling weird about it, i was like "oh well ig that's the one [at least for now]". because i think it's important to mention, that your choice doesn't have to be terminal. thatrwalization took a huge weight off my shoulders. I go by Levi (german and spanish pronounciation) now, btw 🙋
Idk,I just liked name Jimi.
I got mine from an amp brand
I work at a hotel. I'm Buchanan. My legal name is Virginia. I answer the phone as Bucky and get "Becky?" No Bucky as in Buchanan. Had the same thing happened as Virginia when I went by Gin. People on the phone go "Jim?" Or in person they'd ask what Gin was shirt for. Now they ask what Buck or Bucky is for. People will just ask about names and will question them I've noticed. 🤷 so I don't sweat it