Your name and why you chose it

[Britney♥Bieber]

Aww April I love that story! =D

[April Dawne]

Thanks Kimberly =] you seem really cool and sweet, and I think you rock =]

[Britney♥Bieber]

Well you're smart because I AM cool and sweet hahaha! But no lol thanks! You are pretty sweet too!

[Colleen Ireland]

My given name is Tim, so I'm currently thinking that Kim would suit me, but I don't know.  The first name I tried was Maggie, which was the name of a childhood dog, and she was a good dog and we loved her a lot.  But, not sure I really felt right being named after a dog, lol.  On the other hand, I realized the other day that my mother's middle name is Margaret, so I could honor her by using Maggie, but at this point I'm not even sure she'd want anything further to do with me if I come out to my parents.  I'm not even sure whether I want to keep my surname or go with something else, because I'm frankly not sure whether my family would support me in this or not.  I guess I'll reserve judgement until and unless the time comes when they're aware, and I see how they react.  Being as I'm 54, there is a LOT of history there, and now suddenly there's going to be Herstory as well.  (sigh)  Anyway, so far I'm not unhappy with Kim, but my surname starts with M as well, and I've always felt it's awkward having the last letter of my first name and first letter of my last name form a bridge between them.  Sheesh, this stuff is hard, and choosing a name is actually one of the EASY parts, theoretically... 

[Martin]

Been thinking about this for a while... I've really got two main possibilities right now. One is using my current middle name, Martin, as my first name, since I really like that name. The other is I'm quite fond of the name Daniel, and I like the sound of Daniel Martin H--------. On the other hand, I don't want to end up getting called Danielle or something of the sort. Opinions? Advice? 

[Britney♥Bieber]

@ Kim Ireland I like the name Kim! It's the name I chose too! Haha =D

@ Jacky I like the way Daniel Martin sounds. It sounds really smart! And if people call you Danielle simply remind them you are Daniel not Danielle and you will not respond to Danielle and then don't respond to it. If they want your attention they'll call you Daniel.

[jainie marlena]

Janie Marlena mix up to become Laineyjain. A friend of mine sister's name was Marlena her nickname was Mardi. At the time my nickname was Marty so I took it as my middle name. Janie came from me trying to feminize the name James to go with Marlena. Jamie did not flow well to me so I change the M to an N.

[Colleen Ireland]

@ Kim Ireland I like the name Kim! It's the name I chose too! Haha =D

Well, I'm not married to it yet.  Just today I thought of two others I kind of like.  Colleen, because it's the Irish name meaning "Girl", and Constance (Connie) because it has connotations of strength and permanence.  I actually might go with "Constance Colleen", because I have "constantly" thought of myself as a "girl", hehee.  I sort of like that...

[Britney♥Bieber]

Well, I'm not married to it yet.  Just today I thought of two others I kind of like.  Colleen, because it's the Irish name meaning "Girl", and Constance (Connie) because it has connotations of strength and permanence.  I actually might go with "Constance Colleen", because I have "constantly" thought of myself as a "girl", hehee.  I sort of like that...

I loooove that idea! So sweet <3 It's cute too <3 =D

[carolinejeo]

I chose mine because I like it and it is a fairly traditional name that doesn't raise any eyebrows.

Picking a name must be consistent with your age, remember, names are very much a fashion thing. Certain names become popular at different times. For example, one rarely hears of an Elsie being born these days but it was popular 60 or 70 years ago. Likewise if you are 60 years old, selecting a name like Kylie would be inconsistent.

Caroline

[kelly_aus]

I've only gotten as far as a first name, Kelly.. Why? I went to high school with a girl called Kelly and would have loved to have been her.. The other possibility was Sibella, which is what my mum had planned to call me if I'd been born in a female body. I might use it as a second name..

[kae m]

I've only gotten as far as a first name, Kelly.. Why? I went to high school with a girl called Kelly and would have loved to have been her.. The other possibility was Sibella, which is what my mum had planned to call me if I'd been born in a female body. I might use it as a second name..

Kellys are pretty awesome, it's just a fact

In my case, Kelly would have been my name if I were born with all the right parts.  When I came out to my mom and told her I was using Kelly as my name she teared up and asked me whether or not I knew that was going to be my name because she didn't remember ever telling me.  I know she told me when I was really young, I don't remember exactly when, but I guess it just stuck in the back of my mind ever since.

[cynthialee]

My mom gave the name she was going to give me if I was born female to my second sister.

[lightvi]

Well I've finally decided on my name, it's definantly one of the pluses of transitioning. My first name, Isabella is just a name I've always loved and people already call me Izzy so I figured why not roll with that hehe . I just hope people don't start calling me Bell, I'm love Bella but Bell is kind of annoying lol. My middle name will be Alice, because I love Alice in wonderland and her personality is just like mine but also because of a friend who passed away who has inspired me. I'm going to change my last name too and then hopefully move somewhere across the country or possibly across the world.

[HannahRob]

When i told my parents all about me and that i was starting hormones i asked them if they would like to chose a name for me. For me it was important as usually when you are born they chose.

[cynthialee]

When i told my parents all about me and that i was starting hormones i asked them if they would like to chose a name for me. For me it was important as usually when you are born they chose.

My mother was somewhat crestfallen when I had informed her that I had already choosen a name. If I would have known how much she would have wanted to rename me I would have not come out as Cyndi and would have let her hang me with whatever name she choose. But I had already choosen and everyone already knew me as Cynthia so it was too late.

[Lukas-H]

I don't really have an alternate name yet. My current name is very feminine and while I like it I've been advised by several people that I should pick a more masculine name 'just in case'.

I've had a lot of trouble because I want a kind of unique name (like my birth name) but it's difficult to find anything that resonates with me. My partner is Norwegian and since being with them and visiting Norway I've become really taken with the language and Scandinavian names. I especially like 'compound' first names (my partner has one and so do a lot of people they know).

We were talking one night recently and I was musing on a possible male name and they threw a bunch of Norwegian ones at me and Thor-Stein really caught me. It sounds much better on the tongue as it's pronounced Tor-Schtein. The S in Norwegian is often said with an Sch sound, similar to german and some other scandinavian languages.

[KaciKip]

I chose my name, Kaci, when I was in third grade. See, I played softball for a year, and there were two or three other people who shared my birth name. My birth name is "Kristina", so at first they were just like, "Okay, we'll call you Krissy." Of course, I rejected that without a thought and immediately told them to call me "Kaci".

Unfortunately, Kaci didn't last for all those years. I mean, I've always hated my name, but people would refuse to call me by any other. Then last year I switched schools, and they let me introduce myself as the name I chose for myself. So half of the people in my school don't even know my real name. In fact my one friend went on vacation with us, and my mom was all "Kristina lock the door." or whatever. My friend was just like, "Who's Kristina?" XD And she was dead serious. It was amazing. I also had a teacher say, "Kaci's not your real name?" to me. xDD I can't wait to have it changed officially!

And on a random note, Kaci is actually based off of my intials, KC. I thought it was clever in third grade, but now I'm kinda...iffy on it haha. But I'm not changing my name to anything else.

[Muffin]

I decided on a unisex name as I felt it would make things easier during transition. I knew that it wouldn't look out of place next to mr or ms while going through the whole name change, which I feel won't be complete for many a year.... no doubt :S
I made a list of names and with my mum we narrowed them down by elimination.
I also felt that it would be easier for people to call me a unisex name while I'm presenting as "inbetween", I feel that I present very much as androgynous while going through transition so to me it seems perfect and easier to deal with both for me and others.
The original idea was as well to change my name again to something more feminine once I was back from SRS but I'm not 100% on that as the name Shannon is growing on me and I could stick with it quite easily. But yeah the idea was to change it again so that when I have to deal with the whole "previous name" thing on certain paper work it would be Shannon instead of my birth name.
Like a stepping stone.
I don't know I guess it will mostly depend on how much my birth name haunts me post-op.

[Byren]

I've had Strife as a surname for years, I never liked my original surname and I'm a big nerd and wanted to rob a video characters name

LOL!!!   For sooo many years I wanted my name to be Sephiroth!  I even went by the nickname Seph is highschool!    He's still my idol, but I finally figured out it probably wasn't a good idea to take that name.

The name I initially decided to go by (Kael) was from a novel I'm writing. One of the gods in the fantasy world I created is named Ghurrin Ka'el (Ger-inn kah-ell), but in human form he was Kael.
Not too long after I started going by that, I discovered people had a tendency to not hear me correctly, and were trying to call me Kay or Gayle. *shiver* Bit of a step backwards, really.

So...I was reading a fantasy novel in which the character's name was Byren, and it clicked. I was always a fan of Lord Byron, and Byren was an easily recognizable sound, with an uncommon enough spelling to satisfy my need for an unusual name.

So, for now, it's Byren Kael.  I intend to change my last name, too, though not out of any need for separation from the past. It's just a pain in the butt to get people to spell/say it right (it's German) so I have something very easy to say and spell picked out instead.