How did you pick your new name?

[JHeron]

I always liked the idea of an already cool name being cut down and being a cool nickname as well. It was tricky but I like the way Jamieson sounds and I think Jamie's a great nickname. It also starts with a J like my birth name and that was important to me. I'm legally now a JJ haha

[Isabel]

I went with the name Elisabet for a long time before coming out and going 24/7.

When I was readying myself to go full time, start HRT and come out to my family I decided to change my name

In my native tongue, the name I was given at birth can't be feminized. It's a real shame, because my parents gave me the name after my grandfather who had just died shortly before I was born. So a bit of guilt here...

First I thought about naming myself Rose, like my two grandmothers. But I already have a cousin with that name.
Second I thought naming myself with the name Sonia, a name I liked a lot I was a little kid according to my parents.
But, finally I decided to go for a name that I really liked NOW. So, Isabel was the final decision. And a decision I do not regret 

So, as you can see, I've spent a lot of thought on this part, maybe too much, but for me it is very important.

Hope this experience could helps others trying to figure out their name.

Hugs

[Venom]

I went with Emmett as it's a masculinisation of my birth name, that also happens to be neutral. My middle name is a direct masculinisation, and is something I went by for a time when playing online games.

Originally I had a list of names I liked and had narrowed down to a few top favourites, however none of them really suited me. I like Emmett as it sounds familiar, and is a bit of a homage to my birth name - I was named after someone whom my mother was friends with that lost her battle with cancer before my birth.

As for surnames, well I'm changing my surname to my mother's maiden name. I want as little to do with my father as possible, and thus that means changing my surname to something I like better. Just so happens that my mother's maiden name is super cool (even if it's more common that my father's surname). That way I can be an ELC instead of an ELB.

[juanita s]

I asked my mother what she would have named me if i was born a girl, she told me my name would have been Juanita, that is how i got my name.

[lisarenee]

When my mother was pregnant with me, the doctor determined that she was having a girl. The name my parents chose was Lisa Renee. When I was born with the wrong parts, they went with a different name (my old name). I chose to reclaim the name I should have had. I added the female version of my old name as a 2nd middle name to make it easier to explain should someone call me by my old name (I always went by the shortened gender-neutral form of my old name).

[Tiffanie]

I knew I was a girl when I was very young.  There was a family across the street with two girls, Stacy and Stephanie.  Stephanie and I would play together, and I always thought that my name should be close to hers.  I always thought her name was spelled "Steffanie" rather than the actual spelling.  I made the name Tiffanie by taking the first letters of my legal name and adding the "ffanie" of how I thought her name was spelled.  I didn't meet a girl really named Tiffany (or any spelling thereof) until I was 10 years old or so.

[Katiepie]

It is actually an interesting story of how I had claimed Kate.

One summer night, June 6th, 2009, if I remember the date right. At approximately 8:56 pm, or somewhat close by. I received a fateful phone call, or rather it was one of those accidental calls. But the first words from the other party, "is Kate home?," I politely say that there is no Kate here, and they had the wrong number...
That night, I did have a dream, I was in female form, and addressed by the name Kate. (I had sudden chills, writing this)

[Sydney Spitfire]

For myself I thought of my personality and who i want to become then made a list of 20 best names and worked my way through them until I found one that stuck and was perfect

[Marly]

Ha! well my user name here has kinda stuck elsewhere. But it was really just a reaction to an overbearing person who got it into her head that she could decide what my name was. I misspelled it on purpose, not intending to keep it at all. But I might. Deep thinking has me leaning towards April as a name tho.

[GammaHunter]

Though I haven't changed my name yet, I've finally made a decision on what I want it to be. My middle name was easy enough, Shaun, which is a masculinisation of my first name, or basically dropping the last letter. For my first name, I've gone through three names before finally deciding on one. Originally, I wanted to go with Louis (or Lewis, I hadn't decided on spelling) but I can't remember the reason why. Then, I was considering Martin, which I stuck with for about two years. There's no reason behind that name, I just liked it. Hunter, which is my final decision, actually came from my favourite video game (points if you know what it is). I like the sound of my new name. Hunter Shaun (Surname retracted).
I have in the past asked my parents what they would have called me, if I had been born male. They always said that they'd never considered it, and I'm actually named after a TV presenter, because they liked the sound of the name.

[Lady Smith]

I kept my first name because it's unisex and I like it, but my masculine second name had to go.  My new middle name came to me while I was thinking about a name for a character in a story I was writing.  The name seemed to fit me better than the character in the story so I kept it.  Friends and most people I've come to know post transition call me by my middle name which is fine by me.
The big advantage with keeping my old first name was that when anybody did the emotional, 'You'll always be xxxxxxx to me', thing I would tell them that it was still my legal first name which would sort of knock the wind out of their sails more than just a little. 

[Kayleewantsout]

Kaylee comes from firefly, as I watched the series I thought that she was so pretty under all the layers of dirt and grease. Which suits me to a tee.

[immortal gypsy]

I have kept my first name as it is wonderfully unique and while on its own it can be unisex it is more know in my generation as a girl's nickname. It has also made transition easier for my friends as they only have to get use to pronouns and not a new name also.

My middle name will be (haven't changed it yet) the female version of my grandfather's middle name. He taught me values morals and how to be a good person, also his death is what made me realize I had to transition so this is a way for me to respect his memory.

Slight revision from me. I'm changing (or actually extending) my first name. I came to this decision after I saw my hospital discharge report. While I liked seeing and hearing the short nickname version of my name, I later came to the conclusion that seeing the full version would be more me.

Even when you write the name down and are sure, sometimes the eureka moment hits you when you least expect it.

[synesthetic]

When I was a little kid, I'd spend so long trying to figure out what my "boy name" would be (seriously, how did I not know i was trans then?!). I wanted a name that started with "s" like my birthname does, but all I could think of was Steve and I didn't really like that, but little six-year-old me gave up and settled for referring to my "boy self" as Steve

When I first began realizing that I'm trans a couple years ago, I (like many people) made a list of potential names. I wanted an "s" name, but I still was lost. Steve wasn't fitting, and the only other name I could think of that I liked was Spencer, and as much as I love that name it didn't feel like me. So I gave up on an "s" name and searched more; I especially liked the names Jackson, Josh, and Phil, but none of them felt right.

But then I kept going down my list, and when I tried out Alexander, it seemed to fit. It was my eureka moment I've always really loved that name, and it was the first name that really clicked for me. So I've been Alex ever since

[Chula]

The names I have always liked best, Fiona and Rachel, come from girls I knew and wanted to be like as a child. I am recently out as transgender to my close friends, but pre-everything transition wise, so it is probably too soon to get away with changing to a female name now. I desperately want to stop using my male name though, as I am finding it increasingly painful to think of myself in that way. As a compromise I am thinking of using something unisex which is feminine enough to make me feel better, but neutral enough to get away with when I have to be seen as male. My best fit is Lindsey, after a friend from my student days. I also considered Loren/Lori and Finley.

During therapy last week my counsellor asked what the name would be of my inner child, the girl I was never allowed to be. I didn't know, but I thought about it for a while and then went to Mass for the first time in about two years. In church there was a children's display where they had all drawn around their hands, coloured them in and written their names in the middle. The one with the name Lucy on it really leapt out at me. It's not a name I'd ever considered before, but it felt like a perfect fit. Saint Lucy is the patron of sight and insight, and inspiration for artists and writers.

I now feel reasonably content knowing that Lucy is what my name should be deep down, but Lindsey is similar enough sounding to work as a compromise until I can present as fully female.

[RavenL]

I've always loved unique names and a years ago I came across Raven. And I immediately loved the name and felt an attachment. Before identifying as female I always used the name for my characters in video games. And based their looks on how I'd like to look as female.   

[orangeskipper]

For me, I picked my name long before there were webpages with baby names (well, before there were webpages period!). If I were to do it now, that's where I would start.

My name was definitely John Hughes derived, from Some Kind of Wonderful. Here comes 'Little miss Amanda Jones' was just the epitome of everything cool I had hoped to be when I was young. So it went for me. Unfortunately for me, I was to later suffer trauma at the hands of one Bart Simpson. After the Bart prank phone call to Moe's tavern, my name has been the unintentional butt of gender-based jokes for years. I am stealth, so I had the choice to grin and bear it, or change my name again.

For me, it was more important to stick to what felt right, and what I believed fit me best. So, Amanda it became.

[teddybear_zach]

I wanted to keep my same initials as my birth name. and since people always called me Zachariah when butchering my birth name it made sense.

[Marly]

Funny, but in my online presence elsewhere on the net, my Marly name doesn't seem to get picked up as a female name. Bob and Ziggy may have something to do with that I guess. I still deciding whether to keep that, change it to Marley, or go with something totally different.

[Martine A.]

Thanks for asking.

Michelle is feminine version of my originally given name. But I like Martine too. So, when the time comes, I will file to get Michelle-Martine. It is long and I'm not fussy about shorts. Someone can use any of the two, or go for the long version as well.

It would be a really big gift if my mom called me that.