I think my brain subconsciously chose the name James for me, haha. I was on the bus one day when I saw this kid walking down the street. I was curious what his name was so I asked my friend and she said, "his name is James [last name]." At that moment I felt something click inside of me, but I didn't know why because I didn't even know there was a word for how I was feeling. After I accepted myself about 5 years later, I tried a bunch of different names but none really stuck. Then one night I was just laying in bed when that memory popped into my head, and that's when I knew. I also joined the bandwagon on asking my mother what I would've been named if I were born biologically male, but as soon as I heard the name Sheldon come from her mouth I cringed. I'm sure the name suits some people, but I don't think I look like a Sheldon. And it's not like I could even use it as my middle name to still allow my mother to be a part of my naming because James Sheldon [last name] doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.
As for middle names, I knew since, like, the beginning of time that I wanted two. My first is Aidyn, which I first heard of when I was about 10/11 when I was looking up baby names for a character in a book I had to write for school. My second is Xavier, which I just always thought sounded cool and isn't really all that common. When I first really got into the trans* community, I considered dropping Aidyn or at least changing it because (no matter how you spell it) it's way over used, but I ultimately kept it. The way I looked at it was 1) I've liked the name forever, 2) it's not like I get asked my middle name every day, and 3) most (if not, all) people around me don't know what names are and aren't common in the trans* community.
So, there we have it: James Aidyn Xavier [last name].
