What is in a name?

[annajasmine]

I have always thought about feminine names for my self(testing some out on EQ). In September decided take the leap and started HRT it not like I really had any other choice. So I decided to looked up meaning of names I did not like the meaning of the female version of my name. So I went with one mom called me few times when she gets excited when we were playing the cats. She shorten my nickname to (an-a) rather than Andy. I know it is not really shorter who know why she used it but I liked it and felt like it fit. I hope this won't cause her any issues when I come out. Jasmine I thought was a beautiful name and if I used for a first name my nickname could be Jaz. Also I thought Anna Jasmine went well together. Anyways I was wondering how did you come to feminine name or masculine name and why did you choose that name? Even if it just a handle.

Lets keep this topic light please.


Thanks,
Anna 

[annajasmine]

Actually I kept my initials too. You know the story of my first name and the middle name I looked for a J name name because my mom named all of us kids with J names for middle names. I didn't want for her to think I didn't want to be her kid.

Anna

[Cursty]

Ive asked myself this question many times over the last year!
I chose Natalie Carole as my female name and I like to be called Nat by my family and friends. Nat is also the first 3 letters of my birth male name. So it makes it easier while Im transitioning for people to call me that. But when it comes down to it I like the name Carole because it comes from Ancient mythological Greek times when Carole meant a type of dance related to music. Since Im a muscian and philosopher it makes sense to use this name as my preference.
Oh yeah my mother wanted to call me Kirstie or Penelope and my least favourite Girtrude (after my great grand mother.) None of these names really appeal to me and it annoys me sometimes to be called Nat because it reminds me of my male name. So Im just sticking with Carole pronounced (Ca-ro-le). I like my new name and I cant wait for the day to make it legal.

[IsabelleStPierre]

Greetings,

Well, I went through a number of names myself through the years until finally settling on my name and going through the legal name change. My birth name was androgynous to start with and it worked well. For me I took my name from a number of places; Saint-Pierre is an old family name, Isabelle was an aunts name and Jacqueline tied everything together and sounded natural...so Isabelle Jacqueline Saint-Pierre became my name...ya...I know...it doesn't fit on a credit card slip in that little signature box...

Peace and love,
Isabelle St-Pierre (which does fit on most signature lines)

[Pica Pica]

when I had a female name I called myself Rose Morgan. I did this because I used to sign things 'Fair Rose' (as in egypt, i liked the pun)  and the Morgan is my maternal great grandmothers maiden name - most of my parents and grandparents names begin with 'S' and that would make Rose 'Roe'. And I didn't want people to think of me and fish eggs in the same name.

I still sometimes go under Rose, when I am doing something particularly female.

When I publish I feel my own name is not all that memorable, I may call myself Rose Morgan then, but will make no effort to femme myself up, besides, the incongruity could be a giggle.

[KarenLyn]

I think we've done this topic before but it's a good way to exercise my feeble memory.
I was 13 and just started high school. I'd had been struggling with my gid for some time even though I didn't know that's what it was. The day it hit me, I'd had a bad day and I was sitting alone under a tree just off the school grounds. I wanted to know what was wrong with me. Why did I act so weird? It hit me all at once and I may even have said it out loud "I should have been born a girl". Without knowing how, I knew that was exactly what the problem was. Then I wondered "what would my name be if I had?. And it came to me, almost in that instant that it should have been Karen Lyn.
This realization of self gave me a feeling of peace that helped me through a lot of years after that.

Karen Lyn

[Luc]

I've gone through a few names. I finally picked Sebastien because I like the way it sounds, I like the meaning (venerable, revered), and the heritage... Greek and French, and since I'm French and German, I thought it was cool. I picked the middle name Dean for many reasons... first of all, out of reverence for James Dean, secondly, for the character Dean Moriarty from Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I also think it's cool that James Dean was from Indiana, and Neal Cassady, upon whom the character of Dean Moriarty is based, was from Colorado; I lived half my life in each of those places. So that's it.

Sebastien Dean

[gothique11]

Natalie just seemed natural to me. Besides, most people were used to calling me Nat 'cause of my old name. It just seemed to stick, even though I tried a few other names.

Three years before I transitioned, I tried to transition and I was going to call myself Acadia (I still have the old email, which I use for MSN still) -- no body like the name this round, and it didn't seem to fit anymore with me, anyway. There have been a few times when I'd start going, and then end up letting depression, hopelessness, and etc, drag me back down into trying to be a guy, again, then I'd be uber miserable. Now, I'm just uber happy. I'm glad that I finally got to this point. I've been trying since I was young, but with the abuse I just didn't have the strength to do it completely on my own. It took years to get the strength to be myself.

Ashlyn-Rose is my middle name, which was my female birth name (I just combined it into one name with a hyphen). I kept my old last name not 'cause of family, but because it's a cool rock-star name.


--Natalie