When I was daydreaming about whether or not I might be trans, the totally silly idea popped into my head that I'd have to learn a new signature. That got me thinking about names that were similar to my male name. My male name, Keith, had no female equivalent, so I opted for Kathy. My middle name, Lawrence, had a couple of female possibilities, and I opted for Lauren.
When I signed up here on Susan's, that was the name I used. As I got used to using it and having people call me by it, I liked it more and more. So when the time came to "lock in my final answer", that's what I used. It kept my initials the same, kept my signature similar, and allowed people who started to misname me to switch gears in mid-stream and correct themselves witout it being too obvious. I also like that Kathleen preserves the Celtic heritage of Keith. (Keith is Scottish. Kathleen is the Irish equivalent of Catherine.) Kathy was a common name in my birth year, and Lauren, while less common, is plausible as a middle name, since the actress Lauren Bacall was popular around that time.
