I was AMAB and given a recognizably male name I never liked, so I picked out a recognizably female name going into transition. My goal was to blend into the herd, so I didn't want a name that would be startling or unusual for a woman of my age.
Math nerd that I am, I enlisted the help of statistics. I looked up the most common names given to girls in my birth year. (Thank you, Social Security Administration!)
I wanted to avoid being caught in the stampede of Jennifers and Nicoles and Ashleys from that year, so I bypassed the names at the top end of the list and picked out "April" at number 47.
1. Recognizably female.
2. Same initial letter as my given name, so I retain the same initials.
3. Bonus: "April" suggests springtime, a time of a new beginning. I was optimistic about transition. And I was NOT disappointed!
At birth I was given the name "Andrew" (English form of the Greek name Ανδρεας (Andreas), which was derived from ανδρειος (andreios) "manly, masculine") by my well-intentioned but clueless parents.
Boy! Were they ever WRONG!