How did you choose your name...and how many times did you change it...

[Xren]

Chose the name Asher because it's something close to the name I wanted the first time I tried to come out.  When I came out again and wasn't stymied, I went with Ray because it was a conjunction of my birth name (btw: it wasn't Rachel, dunno why some folks keep thinking that) and harder to nitpick as too ambiguous (I had the "not dudely enough" worry.)

And the name Ray...I hated it.  It sucked.  It sounded like I was somebody's middle-aged lumberjack uncle, but it stuck like some skunk attack I couldn't wash off because everybody called me Ray by the time I realized I wasn't a Ray.  ("Harrumph!  Why, that was absurd.  I'll consider the matter over a good bourbon.")  Er...no offense to people named that, it's a perfectly fine name, just not very me.

So I thought back.  I'd initially thought of something similar to the name of an alter ego I had, but couldn't think of anything but Ashe, Ashley (that was so not gonna work) or Ashton (which still sounded too douchey.)  I settled on Asher--like my birthname it's also Hebrew, and it's the name of a favorite luminist painter of mine, Asher Durand.  That one character from The Crow: City of Angels is named Ashe Corven as well.

Now Ray is my middle name, for purposes of not giving friends and relations a case of the bends.

[NXTransit]

I picked Nick because that was always my alternate name in games and online things. I just liked it and it coincides with my given name. Nicholas is the masculine version of my given name. As for my middle name, I always liked the name Xavier, and just stuck with it. So now my initials are NXT.

[JaysonDB]

I wanted a unique name. I looked for a long time but could never find something that actually fit. When I was little I liked the names Ryan and Chris, but as I got older I wanted something kind of different that would stand out. I couldn't find one that would fit so I went with Jason. I loved it, the sound of it. It fit, but something was off. That's when my best friend started calling me Jay. I finally figured it out. So I added a 'y' and it became Jayson. It's unique, yet common.   

My middle name, however, was a lot easier. My friend always said that I look like a Kyle, but Jayson Kyle didn't sound right to me. Then we got into high school and I became friends with this amazing guy, Daryl. When I started hanging out and talking to him, I found out that my first name fits better with names that start with 'd'. I didn't want to steal his name, so I came up with Darren. And from then on, it's been Jayson Darren _____.

[Padma]

I picked Nick because that was always my alternate name in games and online things. I just liked it and it coincides with my given name. Nicholas is the masculine version of my given name. As for my middle name, I always liked the name Xavier, and just stuck with it. So now my initials are NXT.

How do you pronounce Xavier? I'm just curious because I've heard 3 different versions now (and a friend of mine just had a baby called Xavier which was no.3).

[ninjaboi]

Mine was easy, my birth name is Jayne so i changed it to Jay.

[N.Chaos]

My friends have been calling my Nick my entire life, and the majority of my family has always called me Nick, or Nicky. Either way, I like it, I'm keeping it, I'm very attached to it. I plan to eventually change my middle name, probably to Lucas. I'm still debating on changing my last name, though, and whether I'll change my first name to just Nick, or something longer. My mom's kind of pushing for Nickolai, and my best friend likes Nicodemus. But that's just too silly.

[Henri]

When I was in middle school I moved out of state where all my friends were, so I ended up becoming a bit of a recluse. I'd be online the vast majority of the time communicating with my friends in FL, and I also got involved with online character role-play sites. I adopted a name other than my own for myself, because I never really identified with my birth-name. The names were kind of androgynous but they were also funky and not real names (I'd made them up).

A few years later when I was in 8th grade my family moved back to FL and I reunited with my best friend. I had long shaggy hair back then and I wore guy's clothes so everyone thought I was a guy when I showed up in school (I actually had a few of the girls hit on me, which I thought was rather amusing). I was in the girls' locker room, and some kid asked my friend what the boy was doing in there. My friend decided not to correct the kid and go along with it, so off the top of her head she blurted out "Oh, that's just Henry!" She then came over to me and told me that if anyone asked, that was indeed my name. I didn't start using the name officially until the beginning of high school, and then I had everyone refer to me by that, even my teachers. The name stuck ever since.

[niamh]

I haven't yet officially changed my name but I have gone by a few different names over the years on the Internet and my partner has know me by some of them. However, I have had the same one now for two years and I am very happy with it because it means so much to me in many ways. I am pretty sure it's the name I will use when I get my papers officially changed.

As for how I came by it, the first name I found in mythology and the middle comes from a project one of my parents was working on. My first name is no longer used today as a name (so I will only use that for official purposes) - I'll go by my middle name in public, that being well known and common.

[Wolf]

For me the process was finding a name that my close friends and my mum didn't associate with anything or anyone else and agreed with. At first I was going for Wolf, or Woolf, because that is a family name and also I've been attached to that animal and used it in online names etc... But my mum thought it was silly. Then Drew/ Andrew because of a dead relative and to honour the name, but my friends thought it was lame. A variety of others came up, I had asked my mum about Devin (after Devin Townsend) and she'd said no, but then my friend suggested it to her and miraculously she said she liked that one.

However many months on, now I associate Devin with me more than the musician I love my name. It means bard or poet in Gaelic, or conversely, 'godlike' as a french name.

My middle name, Jay, is a bit of a running personal joke for me. I think that Jay would fit anyone as a middle name and I usually introduce friends as <name> Jay <lastname> even when I know their actual middle name.

Choosing a new last name however has been the most difficult but I think I've finally settled on something.

[niamh]

However many months on, now I associate Devin with me more than the musician I love my name. It means bard or poet in Gaelic, or conversely, 'godlike' as a french name.

The (Irish) origin of the name Devin is the family name Ó Daimhín which translates as 'descendant of the little ox' from the root word damh 'ox'. It was confused with the similar word dámh 'poet, learned man' (Dinneen's Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla pp. 222), hence giving the false etymology. The words for 'poet' are bard or file.

You might want to check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ó_Daimhín and http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/~oduibhin/duibhin.htm

(Word geek from Ireland.)

[Ratchet]

This thread makes me question my own name. If my mother was alive I would've went with a name she would've named me had I been a boy. But it seems like Jason/Jayson/Jay seem to be the most common Transman name I've ever heard. I thought it was common in the regular world, which was part of the reason I picked it. I've always had an attachment to it as well, but there are so many of us!

[Hadrian]

This thread makes me question my own name. If my mother was alive I would've went with a name she would've named me had I been a boy. But it seems like Jason/Jayson/Jay seem to be the most common Transman name I've ever heard. I thought it was common in the regular world, which was part of the reason I picked it. I've always had an attachment to it as well, but there are so many of us!

I know what you mean. When I started this thread I was sure about Adrian, and now, I think I should research more names, because there are so many out there, and what if there is a name out there that is perfect for me, and I don't even know it?!

[Farm Boy]

I never disliked my name, and I wanted to keep my initials, so I just picked the masculine form of my first name.  My middle name was harder, since it didn't have a masculine form.  I ended up choosing a name I liked that started with the same letter.

[RomanAlexander]

I remember hearing the name Roman when I was 12, and ever since then I've just really liked the name. I feel like it suits me in that it's unique, but not overly outlandish. It sounds rather masculine, but not overly butch like a stereotypical men's name. I don't feel like the stereotypical guy, I never have and I don't think I ever will. So I never really chose the name, I suppose it chose me. I was thinking of possible alternatives being Damien or Miles, but I like Roman A LOT more than the other two names, and really I just feel more like a Roman than anything else. However people have given me so much crap over the name, mainly "as in the city in Italy?" or "like the author Roman Dirge?" I've also received the nickname "Ramen" because I have a cat named Noodles. So I don't think the nicknames "Ramen" or "Roman Noodles" are going away anytime soon >.>'
Also, I plan to keep my last name. I really love it, in no short part because it's a Norwegian name that translates to "Battle City". I don't think it gets more hardcore Viking than that!

[Jake Truong]

My first name is Jacob, I chose it because an actor in the movie *i forgot which one* was so handsome and he has a awesome body, he was my dream at that time, I dreamed to be like him. So I chose him. Actually, I felt bored after several times thinking, because it didnt mean anything to me when i hear that word Jacob spoken. Then, my name now is Jake. I dont know why i got this name, but I really love this, although it's just a simple one. My girl's Jessika, and it matches good when I think of our dream restaurant in the future " J2 Restaurant ", I'll study Culinary btw. All are simple, but all are meaningful to us. So i think we bettah choose a name which has a meaning or bring a memory to us/

Cheers

[NXTransit]

How do you pronounce Xavier? I'm just curious because I've heard 3 different versions now (and a friend of mine just had a baby called Xavier which was no.3).

It's pronounced like Ekz-ayy-vee-er if that makes sense lol

[Natkat]

its a long story

first got few diffrent names, first name where Lars, I where around 8 years and we had been reading a story about a boy named Lars who traveled in time and stuff, I found it exing so I told my friend to call me lars, but the teacher told scold me and told me to stop fussing around..-__- so I had to keep my girl name from then untill I gratuated.

under 6-8 grade I came across thomas, I didnt know why maybe because I where drawing cartoon and making storys and my artis name where something with T + I liked the name, but it got me bored out.
my bully name where Martin, it where close to my name but I didnt like to take a bully name.

as I said I like making cartoons and storys, and at that time I wanted to grow up making a living for it,
I made a story of a guy named Tony who where as nerdy as me and who had the same look and dreams.
and everytime I thought how he should react I started to think about myself.
he where in general the first character I started to inspire by myself, later I got almost all my chatacter self inspired or inspired by others..

but well I liked it and started to use it on the net,
I had got pretty use to it but I thought maybe I also wanted a name more close to my own,
my second character inspired by me where called Mikkel and it where way more close to me and I where in doubt wich to take, however Mikkel where a boy name and Tony where unisex so Tony where way more easy since you cant have gendernames who is upporsite of your registered sex by first name,
well you can but it very hard and you will wait to your 25 (I where 16-17)

I didnt had time for that so I picked Tony and it where also what I where used to,
my mom didnt like the name, but I guess in general she didnt like me to transdition,
she said it where a bully name, and she wanted me to keep my origininal name or at least make it my middle name, I chanced it to something unisex and putted it on my middle name i never really use so we both goth our ways. first she refused to give me permission but I said if she didnt do it in the vacation before chancing school I would do it in the middle of school year and there would be alit of trouble going to school half year by a female name and half year by another year..

I think my moms biggest problem with me being trans is if im visible so she gave me permission in the end..

[Hadrian]

After a recent talk with my brother who suggested I add and H to the beginning of my name, I realized that Hadrian fits me far better than just Adrian. And I've chosen a middle name as well, nothing close to what I'd been debating over and this is permanent. So, next year I'll be legally Hadrian Caleum *Last Name*.

[ajborelli]

there are times i still question my name...i went by Austyn in middle school but only one person knew i did. but when i went to tell other people it didnt fit me, so in class one day i told my ex everything i was feeling she loved the name Skylar and so did i and i went by it and Skylar drew was my name, but everyone kept calling me drew or skysky and i hated being called skysky, so i decided since everyone decided drew ill make it longer to Andrew, and my middle name that was easy, my best friends first name is James so thats what i used.

[Matthew J. F]

I first came up with James because I loved the name, but it didn't actually have any meaning behind it. It was just that, a name and nothing more.

Quite a few years ago when I was riding in the car with my father I built up the courage to ask him had I been born a male what would he and my mom would've named me. My fathers response was Matthew. Since then I adopted that name as my own.

As far as last name goes. I honestly don't like my real last name. I wouldn't mind changing it to something better. I wouldn't mind changing  it to a German or a Japanese last name.