How did you decide on your name?

[Simon]

I wasn't aware any other state can mess with your birth certificate.

Ahh, so it has to be the State you're born in? Bummer.

[Nero]

I wasn't aware any other state can mess with your birth certificate.

Ahh, so it has to be the State you're born in? Bummer.

Not sure, but I think so. If not, that'd be great cause I just moved and my birth state won't even attach a card. 

Also, has anyone here changed their last name as well?

I did. For several reasons. Nothing to do with family or heritage though. I love my family and my roots and have a good relationship with them.
The judge didn't blink an eye.

[sneakersjay]

I'm an old fart, so keeping my initials was important.  Also, honoring the name my parents gave me by masculinizing it.  and also, I remember being in 4th grade and there was a kid with my male name.  Now, my name is quite boring, but at the time (age 10) I was wishing it were my name.  That, and I wanted to choose a name that fit the decade I was born. It's in the top 100. 

I hated the name my parents said they had chosen if I had been maab, because the neighborhood bully had that name.  So yeah, my name is kinda boring, but it fits, whereas the old F name never fit and I HATED it.

[aleon515]

Well sometimes states will accept a court order from *another* state. At least I think this has been done.
But normally... my birth state is very much less progressive in this regard than my new one. BTW, some states will take top surgery as "SRS", depends on how the letter is written.


--Jay

[Liam]

My birth name began with L, and I wanted to keep the same first initial. My birth name doesn't have a masculine version, and I wanted a short name. So Luke seemed to fit, and I think it suits me.

Andrew is just one of my favourite names. I think it suits me. I toyed with using it as a first name, but decided I like it better as a middle name.

[Brock]

My birthname started with B and alot of my friend refer to me as B and I love this character off PoKemon heheh

[leefer]

Up until a few months before I legally changed my name to Toby, I was going by the name Aeron instead. While Aeron is (in my opinion lol) a nice name, I wanted a name that suited me and that I could really feel was meant for me, you know?

Just think about what feels right. People say Toby suits me, I guess because it seems like a rather boyish name, and/or reminds them of an excitable puppy. Lmao, I'm both of these things.

And as for Aeron, I chose that for my middle name instead!

So yeah just take your time. My advice is not to choose a name that you *love*. Like, I don't love my name, but it fits me, so it's right for me. Does that even make sense? Haha.

Good luck!

[androgynoid]

My birthname started with B and alot of my friend refer to me as B and I love this character off PoKemon heheh

The name Brock always makes me think of Brock Samson from the Venture Bros.

[Clockpunk]

Mikey has always been my nickname, since I was about 15. It was given to me when I was pretending to be a boy online. When I was caught the name just sort of stuck. I don't wish to change it to that because I prefer it as a nickname.

Now that I'm well into my 20's and have established my story I've decided on making my birth name a more masculine (Unisex, more or less) version to make it easier on my family and friends that aren't used to Mikey; from Keena to Keenan.

So far my family has begun to stick to it and my work just uses Mikey! 

[Soren]

Eventually Tobias stuck out to me and the nickname wasn't too bad. So that won out and I'm possibly using one of my other picks for a middle name. Otherwise, I'm using my maiden name or my mom's maiden name. It really depends on how things pan out with my family.

Please tell me your last name isn't Funke

[thecorpsegentleman]

It started out as a name I really wanted to use on a character for a novel I was working on, then evolved to be able to adapt to different settings. I originally chose Xander, then lengthened it to Alexander so that I could seem more masculine when needed since Xander seems to be unisex to some people, and to suit more proper settings. Friends, however, call me Xander, as do most of my teachers. Rarely do I get called Alex, and I like it that way. As for my two middle names? My parents gave me pretty masculine middle names, so I was never too interested in changing them, though I may drop one of them and use an edited version of my first birth name to replace it. At first, the name you pick will feel weird, but you'll grow into it.

[D0LL]

At first, the name you pick will feel weird, but you'll grow into it.

This is how I've been thinking it's going to be. I've been so back and forth about different names, and just haven't been able to settle on one because it feels so strange to me. But I guess that's just how it's going to be. ^^;

[CursedFireDean]

Since I was named after my grandmothers on both sides of my family, I really wanted to keep names from each family. Especially since my parents are now divorced, it was important to me to honor both of them and their families in my name. So I took Robert from my dad's family and Dean from my mom's family. Since my dad's name is also Robert and because I like Dean better, I decided I would go by Dean. But, when I change my name legally it will be Robert Dean [last name].
Then when I was talking to my mom I discovered that's exactly what they would have named me if I was a boy and it made me sure that it was what I wanted. Then I KNEW it honored both of their families the same way my birth name did.

[Crow]

My name-choosing was sort of a multi-step process, because I hated my birth name long before I even came out as trans. As a result, I decided on a whim to switch from my birth name to another girl-name (Diane) sometime arounbd middle school. There wasn't any special reason I chose Diane-- it was just a name I had randomly assigned to a roleplaying character who I got fairly attached to, so I adopted the name for myself. However, when I came out as trans after my freshman year of college, it was a lot harder to let go of a chosen name than it was to let go of a stupid name my parents had given me, so it took me like a year and a half to find a proper guy name for myself! Eventually, a friend pointed me towards "Deyan," which had essentialy the same consonants and intonation with different vowel sounds but was a decidedly male name, so that became my new name.

Of course, nobody can ever pronounce Deyan (I've gotten everything from Daniel to Dayla, depending on how people read my gender and how bad their hearing is), so I frequently just introduce myself as Crow, which is my favorite animal and appears elsewhere in my legal name.

There's nothing wrong with having multiple names you go by, so if you want to hold onto your birth name but introduce yourself as another name (which you could insert as a middle name) while you wait for your transition to progress, I don't think anyone will think anything of it-- lots of people are known by their first name to some people and their middle or last name to others.

[mikaelmackison]

My birth name was Valorie & nearly everyone I've ever known has called me Val (much to my dismay).  Initially I considered going with Val for the legal change (think Val Kilmer) but scratched that idea as I really dislike the sound of it.  The only joy I ever experienced with regard to Valorie is that I was named for "valor", which I have more than proven true of myself.

I pulled some statistics from my birth year, regarding popular names.  I really liked the sound and feel of Kyle, it just clicked for me.  It was #27 on the list, lol.  Michael was #1 & is a name I am quite fond of as well.  I opted for the alternate spelling, Mikael, for my middle name.

[LordKAT]

I kinda just knew what it was.  Naming my kids was the same, no idea until I saw them but soon as I saw them, I knew what their name was.

[Reese]

I wanted to keep my same initials.  When I was around my boyfriend and if someone called him to say who he was with, he'd say he was with his friend Reese (even though he was with me).  My first name that I picked was Ronan, but I didn't like that too much.  When he started saying he was with "Reese," I fell in love with it.  It's easy to say, isn't too common but isn't too out there, and I just like it a lot.  So that's my name!  Reese Matthew.