Hi guys. I'm hoping to go for my legal name change when I get my taxes filed and get my refund. It's a very expensive thing here, not the court fee, but the newspaper can charge $500-700 and we only have the one paper. So this will be a one-time shot for me. I only see that kind of cash once a year. And so I'm really nervous about what to write down as the reason for my name change. I live in kind of a redneck area, and I've been told that I'm not the first to change my name for this reason, but I still fear it being denied. It's just so much money down the drain, and another year down the drain to wait to try again.
I think my first idea was something like "My birth name gives a false impresson about who the name belongs to. A name more fitting to my personal presentation and image would greatly benefit me." But I don't want to be too detailed so I started thinking more along the lines of "To have a name that better represents my physical appearance and how I present myself" or "To have a name that accurately represents the person to who it belongs." But I don't want them to think I'm nuts or trying to change my name for some kind of shady reason. How else do you explain going from a very ultra-feminine name to an exclusively male name? And no, I do not want a gender neutral name. I know what I want my name to be. I don't want a name I can't relate to.
Any suggestions?
