How did you choose your new name?

[Jamie]

In my country everyone have only one name, there's no people with two names... But I always wanted to have two names...

For my first name I've chosen Victor. I just liked it, and it's also Orthodox name and I think it would be really important for my family.

For my second name (middle name) I picked James. It's after James Hetfield from Metallica. He's my favourite musician, so when I started thinking about my male name, I knew that James would be my second name...

[imaz]

In my country everyone have only one name, there's no people with two names... But I always wanted to have two names...

Interesting. You mean only one first name or just one name as with many Javanese (Suharto for example)?

[Andrew]

In Australia they are very fond of feminising male names.  There is: Charlene, Raylene, Waylene, Noelene and others.

Haha! Nolene is my mom's name! I didn't think anyone else had it.

I chose my first name, Andrew, out of thin air. It just sounded right - it's my favorite name - and I was getting called "Andy" anyway when introduced as "Annie." I kept my initials so that I could still use "A.M. Lastname" if I needed to. "Maxwell," my middle name, came from the Beatles song.

[sd]

I always liked the name Leslie, I think I heard my mom say it a few times as a kid as she had a friend with that name. I always planned to use it for a daughter. Oddly I never planned a boys name, and there is a good chance it was what I wanted all along. I have no idea how my mom will feel about it though. I did try other names, but Leslie was what felt right. Though I have had one person say it was strange I picked a name that could go either way, my middle name would remove any doubt. I have no idea what my moms intended name for me was had I been a girl. While that would be kind of nice to use, she picked the first one, I get to pick the second one.  Nothing is still set in stone though so we will see but I am pretty set on my chosen name.

I had been contemplating changing my last name to my mothers maiden name for a long time since I am far closer to that side of the family and well, dad was not much of a dad. Now is a good time to change it as I will be changing the rest, plus it adds anonymity. So that was an easy one.

Middle name, I tried to find something that worked with my first and last. In the end, I ended up with a name that works with my heritage. Not a family name, but follows my ancestry lines in terms of where it is from.


All told I like the name I picked, it sounds pretty, and I will never be embarrassed about my middle name since I like it and chose it. There is one bummer though, I can't ever blame my parents if someone dislikes it.

[SarahFaceDoom]

I needed a name for my therapist to use when she called me out of the waiting room,  so it wasn't weird.  And it was the first name I could think of that I liked, that wasn't already taken by one of my friends.  It ended up sticking, so when i changed my name, I just kept it because that's what everyone knew me by by then anyways.

[JakeGrimm]

I chose Jake without much thought. I like that name a lot. Though, lately, I've been debating between Jake and Jayden. Two names I love. Lol. I'll probably change my last name from what it is now to either Grimm or Wolf. Not sure. Everyone knows my Male half as Jake, though, so I'll probably just stick with that. ^.^

[christov]

my given name was christine lynn. i wanted to stay somewhat close to that so i chose christofer flynn. i've always been chris, so that part was easy.

[Genevieve Swann]

Someone suggested to choose something that matches your initials. My initials are E.G.S. Middle name is Gene. My first name is  Eldred (norse)and last name polish. I don't think Swannski of maybe Swannoczech sounds very pretty. I'm still contemplating on a first name. The real last name is Slagowski so I love a good pollock joke. I don't feel the jokes are racist. We all need to pick on somebody.

[Ashley315]

Someone suggested to choose something that matches your initials. My initials are E.G.S. Middle name is Gene. My first name is  Eldred (norse)and last name polish. I don't think Swannski of maybe Swannoczech sounds very pretty. I'm still contemplating on a first name. The real last name is Slagowski so I love a good pollock joke. I don't feel the jokes are racist. We all need to pick on somebody.

I agree.  All the PC garbage nowadays gets really boring.  People need to learn to take a joke from time to time.  If you can't laugh at yourself, you have no right to laugh at anyone else.

[naomijester]

I'm going to go with Naomi Stephanie Marie. Yea, two middle names but I'm taking my current legal name, Steven Michael, and feminizing it. And yea, Marie isn't the feminine form of Michael but Stephanie Michelle just didn't sound right to me.

As for why Naomi, it's a) what sounds right to me, and b) my favorite feminine name.

[Michelle.]

Girlie version of Michael=Michelle.

Then again I may exercise "my woman's Gods given right to change her mind at anytime."

Maybe Mikella.

Decisions...Decisions...Decisions.

Michelle.

[Marshplains]

My great grandmother's name was Helena . She was the sweetest most caring person i have ever met and i was lucky to have her in my life until i was 19yo. So its either Helena or Maria , Maria is the feminine name of my male name.

[luna]

Luna came from my sister, who noted my unusual obsession with the moon as a kid up until I was about 20. She said that nothing else would ever fit me, so I shouldn't bother looking any longer. Of course I couldn't accept that as true, but she was right. Coincidentally (or maybe not) her obsession with celestial skies earned her the nickname "Star", which so many people call her that it's almost more her name than her real name. She'd change it legally but she's afraid of upsetting our parents.

My new middle name, Simone, is from a song called "Sweet Simone", by Madrugada. I had been searching for a middle name for a long time, and that song came on my playlist and I was thinking "y'know, this actually sounds good with Luna... unlike everything else I've heard." I'm still deliberating on whether or not to change my last name to "Wells", which is an old version my current last name spun off of. It's a bit more common, but I'd have to have my daughter's name changed as well. I'm not positive that's the greatest idea, yet.

[Pica Pica]

I read a novel about Christopher Marlowe, part of the theme of the novel was about the flexibility of words and names and the surnames of non-nobles are pretty flexible. He was also called Marlon, Marley, Merlin...he had a friend who also wrote called Shogspeer.

Anyway, in the book, as in life he was often called kit... I may adopt this as a gnome to plume.

[sarahkinnetz1984]

Mine is a compilation of two of my favorite high school girlfriends...

[Alyssa M.]

Hi Sarah,

That's true for me too to an extent -- some high school, college, and post-college friends of mine that have been important influences on me were named Alissa, Alana, Melissa, and Alyssum, though I've never met another Alyssa! My grandmother's name is also similar.

I also like my name because it means "rational" (and I just love repeating decimals! ) -- and because it came into popularity about ten years after I was born (so it won't be too much of an "old lady" name when I'm old! ).

~Alyssa

[sarahkinnetz1984]

Yeah, Alyssa is a great name... although never a girlfriend, I was infactuated with a Alyssa the whole time I was in school!  And it was while I was school, about ten years ago that crossdressing really became an interest to me... glad to hear I'm not the only one compiling old crushes to identify myself!

[Tristan]

Well my mom picked my name Tristan because I was always such a melodramatic child and teen. (Celtic origin: "noise of arms" French origin: "sad" or "sorrowful") so she said it was right up my ally with all the screaming I did about how un fair they treated me and all the crying I did over almost nothing.  She gave me the middle name Sarabi because its Swahili and thinks of me as such a Mirage sometimes

[Jamie]

Interesting. You mean only one first name or just one name as with many Javanese (Suharto for example)?

Only one first name.

Like: James Hetfield, for example...
Not: James Alan Hetfield.

[imaz]

OK

I've only one first name myself.

From birth I had two, one female and one male... I dumped the male one and really like having just a single first name, saves a lot of time in form filling!