How did you come to picking your name?

[Bex]

I chose Rebecca because it's what I would have been called if I had been born a girl.  I found this out years ago and have always imagined myself as a girl being called Rebecca.

My male name has no shortened form so I also like using Bex.

Bex

[empty]

Just the male variant of my birth name. I'm so-close-but-so-far in my head, always hiding there, so the name kind of reflects that, a natural growth or breakthrough from what I was given. Besides, I like to think the meaning is lucky.

[Dovahkiin]

I picked a male name beginning with the same letter as my original name. Oh, and I chose Harry because it's a common name, and my other name was really uncommon and I hated that.

If I'd been born avec a penis, my mother would have named me Angus. I didn't pick that because it doesn't really suit me. I thought about it but... Nope.

[kariann330]

With me it was down to Kari Ann or Alexis Nicole. Alexis sounded too much like a party girls name to me so i figured i would go with the not so traditional spelling of Kari and the middle name Ann to honor my step mom Joanne who was more like a mother to me when i was younger. Sadly no exciting story there lol.

[kitten]

My story story isn't very interesting i have just always just loved kitten as a name and not as a reference to the cute furry little bundles of love that is the animal^^ Writing this also made me remember a guy i used to know whose name was kitty he always hated his name so we just used to call him kit. 

[Carrie Liz]

I've had a name for my alternate female persona ever since high school, even though I'm just now getting around to transitioning some 12 years later.

My birth name is Charlie, and I ALWAYS wrote transgender fiction on my computer to try and live out the dream, if only in fantasy worlds. So pretty much as soon as I started writing these stories, I started finding female versions of my current name. Cheryl was the first one that came to me, but I've never liked that name, so that didn't last long. And then the next one that I thought of was Carrie. And I don't know what it was about that name, but it just seemed to fit my personality so perfectly for some reason. And so ever since then, my female name has been Carrie. And even though I've discovered many more female versions of the name "Charlie" in the years since then (most notably Carly and Charlotte,) none of them feel like me as much as the name "Carrie."

I asked my mom a long time ago what my name would have been if I was born a girl, and it would have been "Sarah Elizabeth," named after my two grandmothers, and Mom says she would have called me "Liz" because she likes that name. So once I (hopefully) get to the point where I want a formal name change, I'm going to combine the two, and hopefully be Carrie Elizabeth [last name withheld.] I think it fits, especially since my mom always tells me that I have her mother's eyes. So taking on her name as a middle name really seems right.

[Lrouk]

My name doesn't really have a cool backstory. I've always liked the name Luke and hated my original name. Part of it is I wanted to get away from the beginning of the alphabet (the other name started with a B).

When I look in the mirror, I look more like a Luke than anything else. So here I am!

[AnarchoChloe]

I'm actually still torn as to whether I want to change my name or not. My birth name is unisex and I'm quite pleased with it most days but it also ties me rather solidly to a past of shame, doubt and regret that I'd really like to leave behind, so at this moment I'm leaning toward changing it. When I was first thinking of names I thought I'd want to stick with an L name and debated about Lana, Laura, Lucia, or Lola (my nickname most of my life has been Lolo so it seemed an obvious contender). None of those felt like they fit though so I decided to branch out past L names. I've always liked the name Chloe, which was the name of my imaginary friend when I was a kid, and started using it on various websites and forums and it just seems right. When I looked it up I found it was a popular Irish name, as was my birth name, so I decided to go with it.

I've not found a middle name yet. I keep feeling that it should start with an A but really can't decide. The name I really want, Artemis, is just too much of a mouthful to throw between my short first and last names but I haven't found anything else I like as much. Alexandra has been steadily growing on me though.

[Jeepgirl90]

I'm CTW, I wanted to keep my initials and also keep with a similar first name to reduce confusion around people I know, and am still in contact with. Christina is a derivative of my Male Name Christopher, and Tali, my middle name matched my initials ,but the name I adopted from one of my favorite character in one of my favorite games, Mass Effect, I know I'm a dork

-Christina

[ConfusedGirlRuby]

I've chose Ruby. For a variety of random reasons. Firstly my birth name began with R, so it felt more natural. Also, the very first time I ever passed in public was when I was wearing Ruby red lipstick and a red dress with red patent pumps with fake red gems on. It was a fancy dress party and I went with a Little Red Riding Hood theme. At this party not many people knew me, only about 3, and everyone I introduced myself to thought I was a girl (I didn't bother correcting them because in my mind they were correct), and they asked me what my name was, I stared down at my shoes and just said the first thing that came into my head "Ruby".

The second name is Olivia, but not many people know that yet. I picked it because I thought it sounded pretty, plus it's a dedication to Olivia Newton-John, and the fact I love olives.

[AwishForXX]

The name I really want, Artemis, is just too much of a mouthful to throw between my short first and last names but I haven't found anything else I like as much.

How about the Roman equivalent, Dianna?

[AnarchoChloe]

Hahahaha! I had no idea those names were linked. Dianna is my sister's name. What a great little coincidence.

[MissHayleyKat]

My name's Hayley-Katherine.
Hayley because I'm a big fan of the band Paramore, and for a very long time, I felt it was wrong for me to listen to them while I was male, so when I came out as transgender, they were all I could listen to.
Katherine because of an old friend of mine who commited suicide three years ago, and also because it can be shortened to Kitty, which is a nickname of mine anyway.
My middle name was the same as my grandfather's name, Leslie. I guess I got lucky with that one.
My parents thought I was going to be a girl right up until I was born, and my mum's a huge Alice Cooper fan, so she wanted to name me after him, in the end she settled for Alex.

[secondo]

my names were both inside jokes. the  first time around, i had to pick a name to go by because my friend wanted to start a podcast and i didnt wanna use my birth name. later that day we were in a store and i said "i wish my name was chip so that whenever someone asks for some chips, i could say, 'im right here!!'" and i put on a dumb goofy face and laughed and my friend suggested my name be chip. it grew on me so much i went by chip for a while (its still a nickname!!)
just a few months ago at starbucks, i ordered a drink and gave "chip" as my name. i was so frustrated that they would never write my name on the cup, and the first time they did, i realized they'd misheard it as "tim". i again joked about it with my friends and they jokingly called me tim. lo and behold, once again the more they said it the more it grew on me. now i'm tim or chip, usually my friends alternate. but my legal name would probably be tim. it's a more "serious" name.
i dont know lately tim doesnt feel exactly perfect, but if it sticks around, i'll always have a great story to tell people that starbucks picked my name. ha.

[tomthom]

I feel like my birth name, which I got from my father... Well I always hated being named after somebody else. It's not that I hate him or the name Thomas itself, but I always wanted my own name. I haven't actually decided yet, but I feel like I want a name with a double entendre. or some higher meaning than the face value suggests so that people wondering about it might catch on as a certain little in joke. One Certain name I like is Ailis. it means the light of the sun in gaelic, and with that I feel like I can relate it to a new dawn in my life, or the ever changing molecular composition of a sun, just like as a person I'm always changing who I am.

but honestly I have a hundred names in my head right now. I figure it will just come to me, or me and some close friends will sit down and have a pow wow over it.

[bethany]

Seeing we have a lot of new people here, I thought I would try and revive this thread. I found the reasons how we choose our new names very interesting. If you feel inclined please tell your story as to how you came to pick your name.

Hugs
Bethany Dawn

[Dreams2014]

I'm thinking of Ashley or Riley as they are both fairly neutral (I don't want an overly feminine name). Likely I'd go for Riley, because it is similar to my current name, and it is Irish like my family name.

[spacerace]

My original name had a gender neutral nickname that I thought about turning into the male version of the name. I was pretty sure I had settled on it completely, but then I had a moment where I realized hearing it would always make me think of the female name, so I decided it was not to be. 

Then - I was sitting around thinking about changing my name and my roommate was watching one of the Star Trek series on TV. Star Trek is fine, though I am not really that into it and haven't seen anywhere near enough of any of it to be a super fan, but I heard a name (normal, traditional name) of one of the characters and decided that was it, hah - so my name is from a Star Trek character, but only as inspiration, not as a namesake --

[vegie271]

My therapist asked everyone in a group what our names should be, I thought and it took a while, I was walking down the street about 3 days later and it simply came to me what my name actually was both a First and Middle name, then about 3 years later the middle one was changed by a friend to a different one she was the wife of his ( a guy a knew quite well) she had been supposed to name her daughter this, then my parents told me that I was not allowed to  keep their last name so I had to change it (that was their level of rejection).

[NathanielM]

My birthname starts with N and my parents would've called me Nathan if I was a boy. So I wanted to try Nathan for a while even though I didn't really like it. After a couple of weeks I ended up loving the name and with my best friend I made it into Nathaniel because we both like fantasy and names that are a bit more... special. The name also means gift (of god but I'm ignoring that part) which I kind of like as well. I'll probably end up putting Nathaniel on the ID and being called Nathan most of the time. I haven't thought about middle names, I have two and they are very feminine.