How did you come to picking your name?

[Jessica Merriman]

After exhaustive research I discovered my real last name (I was adopted) and Used the first name of a trauma patient I worked hard to save, but couldn't who I found out was involved in several charity organizations. I just couldn't let her name die and wanted to remember her for the rest of my life.

[Sophia Hawke]

Sophia Hawke is the alias I play games as.  I chose Sophia because I wanted a name that fit my rather proper personality.   I picked Hawke from the dragon age 2 character because I thought it fit well with person I want to let out on the inside since I've been suppressing it for years.(although truth be told, I'm very feminine weather I want to be or not,  there really isn't much of a guy mode for me). I also want to change last name to put closure on this part of my life. 

On a side note, many of my friends unknowingly call me by the female version of my name.

[KabitTarah]

I don't know if my name has settled yet. I'm trying to match initials. There are a lot of T names I can't use and many I don't like.

I tried Téa for a while... but thought it was too confusing and a bit too exotic (though it's Spanish, as am I).

I've settled more firmly (though will it last...? I think it might) on Tarah (pronounced TAH-rah). My middle, Emily - at least for now.

I am not consulting my parents on this - the way they've treated this stage in my life (twice... once 20 years ago), they don't get the chance.

My sister liked it, though she doesn't understand why I care about initials - I don't go by my 1st name with family & friends.

[Bunny Girl Zoe]

Came up with mine after a tv person and ex model and Middle name after the icon and my idol Marilyn Monroe.

[Zambie]

I had it right there in my hands. A whole list of boys' names my parents thought up, with only one girls' name down at the bottom: the name my parents gave me. Talk about bad luck. I was a really young kid at the time though, so I don't remember what the names were and no matter how hard I search I can't find the list again. I tried asking my parents what they would have named me if I were a boy of course, but there were so many options they didn't remember either.

So what was I to do? Well, the list was lost but our family tree was intact; it was from there I received my middle name Lawrence to keep up with the naming convention of my family. First there's James Garfield, my great granddad, Lawrence Garfield, granddad, James Laurence, my dad, and ? Lawrence, myself.

I decided to pick my first name from baby books and name websites since there's no way in hell I was naming myself after a cat from the funny pages. I had very strict criteria when it came to my first name: it couldn't be the name of anyone I already knew since that would be awkward, it couldn't be a 'big shoes' name like Abraham or-god forbid-Elvis, and it had to be conventional for the decade I was born in and mesh well with my middle and last names. Eventually I happened upon one name that leaped out at me, so I've been tossing it around in my mind and on paper to see if it will stick.

I'm not sure if it will yet, so you guys can just call me Zambie.

[nerdyjamie]

I was given a gender neutral name at birth, so for a long time I didn't plan on changing it. Now that I'm starting HRT I think I want to, though - Jamie will always be a girl's name to me!

After a lot of googling, I think I've settled on Felix. I had a lot of names that I liked, but didn't feel like me - they all felt a little too glamorous, a little fake on me. Felix was on the list of most popular names the year I was born but still not too common. And the best part is that it means 'happy'!

I haven't told anyone yet, because I'm just not the type to until I'm sure. But I've been practicing writing it, and like someone else said, it's the name I give at starbucks. I though about keeping Jamie as a middle name, but hearing it right before my last name was bothering me. So I think I'll squish my first and middle initials together and be Felix J.M.

[Megumi]

Not too long ago my parents said they named me and my sister after M & M's the candy. They wanted to have two kids that had names that started with an M haha! Even before I first learned what being TG was when I was in 7th grade back in the 90's I had always called myself Megan in my mind.

[Shakti]

Well I knew that if I'd been born a girl my parents would have named me Rebecca, but that's the name of my best friend. Actually she helped me pick my name, she seemed to be under the impression that I should go with something that resembled my boy name, so I ended up going with Mikayla because of the similarity as well as that it's not cliched and it seemed modern and trendy. I came up with my Middle name Shakti when I was chilling at home a few weeks later, I just knew it was the natural choice and was totally right. Later I found myself slightly disturbed my the similarity of Mikayla to my old name so I often shorten it to Kayla which quite a few people seemed to do anyways. I'm still ok with Mikayla though, and I don't regret making it my legal name, I just like the option of using Kayla too.

[Amira]

When I was young I use to put a long yellow sheet on my head as a wig. And i used to pretend I was sailor moon(Moon Princess). When I was older I kept telling my mom I was a princess! She said prince not princess you're a boy! I ended online looking for a name and came across the Arabic name Amir which meant prince. It sounded nice to me so I search for the Arabic word for Princess, it was Amira! I smiled and took it as my new name.

[SandiMarieaz]

I didn't pick this name, it just sort of happened.  I had in the past picked out female names that I found to sound feminine that I like, but I also like Sandi.  It was given to me by my wife one night we were goofy off and I called her by a boy's name and she in return called me Sandi.  It's just sort of stuck.  The middle name is her given middle name, that is also shared by her olderst daughter. 

Not much thought went into this name, but the spontanaity was great.

[RavenMoon]

Well let's see... When I was a teenager I asked my mom what my name would be if I was born a girl. She said she was going to name me Penelope and call me Penny for short. She was filling a big jar full of pennies to give to me. She had not even picked a boy's name, and instead my brother named me David. It's a nice name, and I always liked it.

So all throughout high school I wrote Penelope on everything. My friends thought I was weird. But that's not the name I'm using. It just doesn't feel like me.

About 20 years ago I came up with the name Raven Moon. I do not know where I got it from. It just popped in my head one day. I knew I was Raven Moon. (I've been into the occult since I was about 12, and that's my witch name.) I've used that name in conjunction with my birth name online for a long time. When I recently made the firm decision to transition, I dropped my birth name from it in many places. Two of my close friends now call me Raven.

So Raven it is. Was there anyone born in the late 50s with that name? I really doubt it. Do I care? Not one tiny bit. When I looked at popular names from the 50s I only saw two I would even remotely consider. And one of them was the same as an ex girlfriend, and that's kind of creepy because we are still friends. lol Some people do change their names after all. It's also similar to my birth name sound wise. It's a cool sounding name, and it fits my personality.

Plus, I've always stuck out like a sore thumb, so it's fitting. I'm artistically a non conformist. People see me and know I'm either an artist or musician. Just last week my ex wife told me that someone from our daughter's school said to her that he saw her daughter with a man at the school, and was that OK? (my ex is black, so that might have been why he asked, but out daughter does look mixed). She said "Did he have blue hair? That's her dad!" lol

Also, I'm a musician, and plan to continue to perform until I can't. I play in an alternative grunge/punk band in NYC, so the name and my future persona will fit right in. I'll be a cool middle aged rock goddess. lol I have come up with an elaborate last name too, but I'm not sure I'm going to change my last name. But it will be my stage name. Middle name? What the heck, might as well be Moon.   But I might use Penelope to honor my mom. She was the coolest, and also a singer back in the big band era. And we look alike.

I have no qualms about losing my initials or anything else. I'm putting that person to rest. I will always remember who I was, and I will soon become a different person. In a lot of ways we are free to invent our new persona, so I wanted to invent something memorable. It might even give my musical career one last big boost. it also makes up for missing out on growing up super cute.