Susan's Place Transgender Resources

pretty self explanetory. im getting really frustrated trying to find my first name. i have a middle name. the one i wouldve had if i had been born female. but the first name that i wouldve had doesnt fit me. so now ive gotta find one. i want one thats pretty and unusual and doesnt have any memory associations and wont raise questions when i go full time. i tried a name generator for ideas and just got a few laughs

so. howd you find your name


edit: for the record the first name i wouldve had fits all of those it just doesnt fit me somehow.

I took my male name and made it kinda female...
I couldnt change it completelly cause it means much to me...
so Philip became Philina
still it took me a while to come up with it , its not an easy process  :-\

well I made a bit of a leap with mine. my born name is shawn. so i could have stayed, its a rather agender name. or gone shawnna if i really wanted to.

however, eversince i read a book i had follen in love with shea, and in the book it was used in a male contaxt so for game charectrs i wouls use shea.

When i came out to my fiancee and started comming up with my name, she soggested Shea, however i had a cowrker that went by shay...... she changed it to Sheala, and added the middle mane Dawnn to go with it. That was the name that i fell in love with from the moment i heard it. it fit me so well i couldnt be any one else.

you can find your name from any where, it doesnt matter what others think, if you like it and it fits who you are, go with it.

Whatever you go with won't be perfect, but it will be yours and nobody else has any say in the matter.

If you really don't want to raise questions, I would check the social security administration database for your birth year, and pick something in the top twenty. If you aren't born in the U.S. and can't find a similar record set, ask your elders what was popular then. You could even just alter a popular name to be similar enough to be unique and still blend in.

Still, anything you pick is yours and you can make it what you want.

I like Cynthia and Michelle is the female version for Michael. I am going with this for now but may change it later.

You might try using some baby-naming tools. A good book for someone in your situation is The Baby Name Wizard (http://www.babynamewizard.com) which gives "sibling" ideas (but is more like an "if you like this you might also like that" idea). You might also visit Nameberry (http://www.nameberry.com); on their forum they've had a few transpeople asking for ideas and they've been pretty accepting of them.

I'm still working on it myself. ;) My current name doesn't really have a proper female version. The closest thing to one is rather archaic, and I don't think many girls have been given that name within the past century... I asked my parents what they were planning on naming me if I were a girl, and they told me my name would have been Alison. I'm not sure how I feel about that name. It's pretty different from my current one, and it would take some getting used to. I think I might just use it as my middle name. I did find a list (http://www.randomnames.com/allnames.asp?g=f) of girls' names on Google that seemed to have a lot of good candidates. Right now I'm thinking maybe Melissa for a first name? It has a similar feel to my current name, or at least it seems that way to me. I'm not sure if I like the nicknames for Melissa though, so it's tough to decide.

Either way, picking a name is hard, and personally I don't think anyone deserves the misfortune of having to pick their own name. :P It's a lot easier if you're just given a name and are able to get used to it over time. I don't know of that many people who hate the name they are born with. But if you have to pick your name, it feels like you need to pick something that represents you, your personality, your likes, your dislikes, your hopes, your dreams. Or you can just take the easy way out and pick the female version of your male name like a lot of people do. ;)

Ninteen years ago, I was on this Transsexual Internet site, and it wanted me to register. I thought for a half a second after reading through the forum that it would be kind of wrong for me to be presenting myself as a woman with a male name, so I remembered that most transsexuals usually chose their names starting with the same first initial from their male names, so all of a sudden the name 'GINA' pops into my head and I went with that. Then a few weeks later the surnmae 'TAYLOR' came to me and it sounded good, so I kept it.  Then a week later I added 'ANN' for her middle name. So hense forth, Gina Ann Taylor was created.  

Madeline B recommended my name.
I like Victor because it means I win with all the subtlety of a brick.

once upon a time, i had gone on an internet site and went by raine. everyone was confused as to which gender i was. later, i was told it was a bit too unique. and she was right. its a genderless name so itd be a dead giveaway. so i thought of names i liked and came up with zoey. but it didnt seem to fit.
so i tried the method i used to name my characters. i went on baby name sites looking for something... anything. i ran across the perfect name.
Noelle.
it is close in meaning and origin (which is french) to my birth name, curtis, which means courtious. Noelle, meaning christmas, is the most giving and unselfish time of year for me so i felt it fit me well.
plus its the name of my favorite chaacter in blazblue so thats a bonus. :p

My given name was Bryan, and so initially I decided that like Brie, and so went by that name for a while.  But then I saw that I LOVED "Brianna", so I decided that the long version would be Brianna and that I would still go as Brie for short.  My given middle name was Evan, and the name "Evelyn" always fascinated me, so there you go!  Brianna Evelyn =)  I love it!  ;)

Good timing, I just wrote about how I named myself the other day!  In short, I looked at how popular my male name was for the year I was born and then took the female name with the same ranking.

Full blog post here: http://ocarinaproject.net/?p=170

Both my grandmothers first names.

I knew what my name should have been ever since I was a kid. I wish I would have acted on my feelings back then instead of suppressing them. The funny thing is people always assume what my name is when we first meet and they see my birth name and automatically call me by a name I never liked.

Ok so I have a rather funny story. It's about my first and middle names. When I did drag my drag name was Alicia Love. Most of my friends wanted me to change my first name to Alicia. But I had to get away from that whole persona. My born first and middle were Ian James. I have always hated both names. I was planning on going with either Tyanna or Tatiana but my father kind of helped me pick my first name which is funny in its self. He asked me if I knew who Lana Turner was. I had never heard of her so I googled her and found out she was a Blonde BombShell. So that is how my first name came into place Lana it was. I had always liked the name Vivian but I spell it with an E not an A Vivien Not Vivian.

So as it is now Lana Vivien and then my given last name which I like. Lana Vivien Poulson :)

Ever a  pragmatist, to make life as easy as possible for people who will already have enough difficulty getting their heads around the idea that the "he" they had known for years is now a "she" I took feminine names that were very close to my male names. Donna is pronounced almost the exact same way as my male first name and my second name, Antonia comes from Anthony.  I did however consider Angélique for a while but something told me that it would be a hard sell.. :)
Happy hunting!
Donna

I wanted to leave my given first initial intact, but there were no female equivalents of my first name (Gregory).  I didn't want a name that had an obvious male equivalent, (Michelle, Paula, Briana...) as I didn't want people to falsely assume my original name.  I also didn't want one that was unisex (Leslie, Dana, Alex).  I could also eliminate names of people near and dear to me, and people I couldn't stand to be around.  My mother would have named me Juliana if I was FAAB, but my much younger sister got that one.  I also like anagrams. 

All roads seemed to lead to Gillian.  An anglicized version of Juliana, starts with "G", all letters originating from my birth name, and every Jill I ever met was awesome.  Love it.   The first name I tried on was Ginger, for the obvious anagram (In Greg), but it so didn't fit.

My middle name is Elizabeth.  Classic, regal, elegant.  It could have been Victoria as well, but Elizabeth won out.  And my wife is 100% Brit.

I took her last name as well.  She stuck with me, and that means the world.  She is my rock to the very end. 

And don't even think about calling me Jack.  :D

I've been on hormones since June and still haven't selected a name, lol. For about a year or two, I used the name Jennifer or Jenny with friends, but that was when I was 19.  I'm now an ancient 24 soon to be 25 year old.  To be honest, I don't think I'm a Jenny even though I love the name.  Besides, I know too many Jens in my life that we don't need another, lol.  I'm considering something that starts with m.  In particular, I really like Mandy and Molly.  The problem is Mandy starts with 3 letters that could prove bad for a transgirl and Molly is now used for a street drug (and I know someone with that name who I'm not really a fan of).  Not sure yet. 

Just find something that you like and that really feels like you.  It's not as easy as it sounds, but you'll find something.

Quote from: Edge on January 01, 2014, 11:41:15 AM
Madeline B recommended my name.
I like Victor because it means I win with all the subtlety of a brick.

that made me laugh because its funny. but also because of the differences behind choosing a male name vs a female name. subtlety of a brick  vs elegance and flow. XP

thank you for all the replies everyone. im that much closer. : )

I, like many, just came up with a bunch of names that were basically female versions of my male name, and then picked the one that sounded like the best fit.

My male name was "Charlie," so the various names that I came up with were "Cheryl," "Charlotte," "Carrie," and "Carly." (Never considered "Charlene," because it was a bit too close.)

Out of all of those, I liked "Carrie" the most. So that became my first name. Then my middle name, Elizabeth, was my maternal grandmother's name. My mom always tells me that I have her eyes, so I thought it was appropriate.

I got my name the same way I got my kids names, they just came to me, I saw them when they were born and just knew what their name was, When I went to fill out my name change papers, same thing happened. I know, not much use but, I am a KAT.

I chose Julie for my first go at transition. When I decided to retransition I wanted a break from the past and didn't want to use that name. This time I was just going to feminise my male name. First name was simple enough but my middle name "Grant" has no female equivalent. I was having a bit of a think when it occurred to me that "Grace" was a fairly close analogue - thing is, I like it so much I decided to make it my first name.  :)

I picked the name Lilith a few months ago because I liked the sound of it. I think it fits me but I don't know if I'll use it yet.

Choosing a name for yourself can be fun!

My legal male name comes from family relationships.

But my nickname, "Jamie," came from the girls in kindergarten.

It is sort of unisex and so fits my genderfluidity.

I kept calling out different names until I responded to one.

I remember a girl at school that I thought was beautiful and we were great friends for a year or two. She was called Natasha and now so am I.

Quote from: nonameyet on January 01, 2014, 05:09:39 AM
so. howd you find your name

Initially, I was considering the name Dana Willow so that I could keep my initials (DWM) and thus also keep my email addresses as they were all based on my initials.

But always loved the name Constance and its diminutive, Connie. So I chose that for my first name and randomly chose Anne for my middle name. They sounded good together, both Constance Anne and Connie Anne.

Then, I looked the names up.

Constance means "steadfast" and Anne means "grace." At that point, I felt my decision was made.

Constance Anne has been my legal name since January 25, 2013.

Quote from: n/a on January 01, 2014, 06:06:53 PM
I kept calling out different names until I responded to one.

Your name so fits you!

Quote from: Constance on January 01, 2014, 06:09:08 PM
Initially, I was considering the name Dana Willow so that I could keep my initials (DWM) and thus also keep my email addresses as they were all based on my initials.

But always loved the name Constance and its diminutive, Connie. So I chose that for my first name and randomly chose Anne for my middle name. They sounded good together, both Constance Anne and Connie Anne.

Then, I looked the names up.

Constance means "steadfast" and Anne means "grace." At that point, I felt my decision was made.

Constance Anne has been my legal name since January 25, 2013.

The symbolism is a perfect fit.

Quote from: Jamie D on January 01, 2014, 06:09:45 PM
Your name so fits you!

wait, are you talking display name or real name? 

im thinking it is supposed to be real name.

I picked my name when I  was 3 or 4. A new girl moved to the neighbourhood and I thought her name was the prettiest name I even heard so I adopted it for my own. It is totally different from what my male name was and is not the feminine version of any male name - strictly and totally female. It has been mine for 60 years now

Quote from: Constance on January 01, 2014, 06:09:08 PM
Initially, I was considering the name Dana Willow so that I could keep my initials (DWM) and thus also keep my email addresses as they were all based on my initials.

But always loved the name Constance and its diminutive, Connie. So I chose that for my first name and randomly chose Anne for my middle name. They sounded good together, both Constance Anne and Connie Anne.

Then, I looked the names up.

Constance means "steadfast" and Anne means "grace." At that point, I felt my decision was made.

Constance Anne has been my legal name since January 25, 2013.

Very interesting Constance. You definently got my interest, so I looked up my name and I found this:
What does Gina mean? (Celtic) Lady of the people; (Japanese) silvery; (Latin) Virgin; (Latin) Queen; (Old Greek) Well born, nob (somebody rich or socially powerful.)
[2 syll. gi-na, gin-a] The baby girl name Gina is pronounced as JHIYNah in English or JHIYNaa in Italian.  

I also looked at common girl names for my birth year and almost chose Monica. My mom said my name would've been Karen had I been assigned female at birth. She couldn't remember what my middle name was supposed to be.

But choosing my own name was important to me, and by the time she'd mentioned that name to me I'd already chosen Constance Anne.

I got the name kaori from a anime. Well her name is kazehana and she is my faverite character her name means wind flower and kaori means scent or perfume. So it kind fit together to me. However The other name I considered emily was something that just came to me one day.

Names are a very special and intimate thing I feel. I played with a few different names searching for something that sounded cool, pretty, or unique. Of course all of those didn't suit me or my personality and not to mention I hated being called by those names. It just didn't fit. I eventually "settled" on a name but so turns out my closest friend became very serious with this girl with the same name. It got awkward for a little bit to say the least. I finally drew back to my cultural heritage and genres into which I delved into to escape life for inspiration to create something uniquely me, however common sounding enough not to be weird. Came out to Chloe with a Spanish last name. I absolutely adore the name and love it whenever I am referred to by name. It was especially nice when I got little whispers in my ear from old lovers past saying good morning and whatnot.

I asked my parents to name me. I said that I would love a name that was based in our family history just like my previous name.  It seems my mother was the primary decision-maker with names though, and so she started thinking of names like she did ages ago. How many parents get to do that again I suppose. I am lucky to have a mother who would go for that (and let me say I sure as he** never thought she would accept me as a daughter so I was wrong).

It was a fun way to involve my parents, and now they have no excuse to ever forget my name. Now if I could just come up with a way to force them to remember the right pronoun...

Faye has just been a name I have always liked, not entirely sure where it came from but I love it and knew that was the name I had to have from the start. As for Rose, I had my ex and current friend just say a bunch of middle names until one stuck, and Rose did :)

Quote from: n/a on January 01, 2014, 06:13:06 PM
wait, are you talking display name or real name?

ROFL - Jaime Renee

Quote from: Sheala on January 01, 2014, 06:27:58 PM
im thinking it is supposed to be real name.

Jaime has been known to pull a few legs ...  :o

I actually didn't completely decide on name on my own at first.  couple of friends (both separately) on a different online community started calling me Lexi, because of how girly I tend to be, and I liked it. but I settled on Alexis, which can be shortened to Lexi. :)

I came up with my first name from somewhere my father used to know. I really liked it and it was exotic. My middle and Last name are used from different personas throughout my life thus far. If I ever change my name the name I created will be the name I use.

Quote from: Kaori.T.A.K.Diioia on January 01, 2014, 10:15:57 PM
I got the name kaori from a anime. Well her name is kazehana and she is my faverite character her name means wind flower and kaori means scent or perfume. So it kind fit together to me. However The other name I considered emily was something that just came to me one day.

kaori is such a beautiful name
Ill be using it in my japanese class  :)

an old friend showed up in a dream....we were riding horseback together, running from the police, and she referred to me by my new name..

Not very fond of the feminized versions of my first name, William, so I just kept playing with different names in my head till I found one I liked. I came up with Katherine Jane Morris. Katherine seemed like a nice fit for me and Jane is based off my middle name James and I'm keeping my family name.

My birth name is dominc but because most peopl I know talk with an urban slang they pronounce it dominique. So that was out of the question. I'm currently stuck on 3 name. Gianna, Gisele, and London.

Lisa is the name my parents selected for me when the doctor told them they were having a girl. I'm also considering using the feminine version of my [birth] name as a middle name. I have always gone by the shorter (gender neutral) form of my [birth] name and some of my credit cards already have the shortened (gender neutral) name instead of my full name.

Originally I went through the phone book and wrote down all the names I liked, but that didn't work. Eventually I just saw a name on some credits for a TV show (it was Six Feet Under), and I liked it, so I kept it. I went by that name for many years and my family still calls me that, but now I mostly go by an old nickname that is both very unusual and gender-neutral. I will probably legally change my name to a combination of the first name I was given and the second name I chose for myself, and I guess I will put the name I actually go by in there somewhere, too. Maybe as a middle name.

I'm still waiting to name myself.  I'm really leaning towards Loker, which is a character in lie to me who is stark raving honest, which is an attribute I pride myself in having.  But before I name myself, I'm feeling out my parents.  Everyone else I know was named by their parents, and even though we don't have the best relationship, in an ideal world they would be accepting enough of my transition to name me a second time.  I already brought it up to my dad and he said my new name is none of his business.  I don't think he even understood the weight of what I was asking... or offering.  But yeah, if I don't get a name from my mom I'm going to go with Loker.

If you're more looking for ideas of how to name yourself, rather than just other people's stories, I started with my ethnicity.  I'm Irish, so I looked up Irish names and did a lot of research into the meanings of those names, trying to find one that both sounded like me, and described me.  That might be a good place to look if you have a strong cultural heritage in which you take pride.

i've called me Judith/Judiana for social purposes ( forums) and my gender therapist and biological name starts with a J so...

I spent a lot of time going through lists of girl names and I got nothing. My male name has an obvious female variant but a female cousin already has that name so going that way wasn't an option. It wasn't a pressing issue at the time, so I gave up and just let it go.

Then one morning about 6am when I was driving into work 1/2 way asleep with nothing particular on my mind "Eva Maire" popped into my head. I liked it and I went with it. In about 5 more months it's going to be my official name.

I chose mine from a combination of sources. At first I was considering Dawn, to keep my initials. Then I found the name Lyra in both one of my favorite books (The golden compass) and in one of my favorite games (Pokemon HG/SS) and it really resonated with me, and then I realized Lyra Dawn Is the most beautiful sounding name I ever heard and it became mine. Later I found out there is a background character in My Little Pony named Lyra, I never heard the end of that from my friends x3

I chose Kelly as my first name to keep my first inititial and for my irish heritage plus being born on st patricks day. Chose my last name Patrick because it is my current middle name and the birthday thing. Never thought of a middle name.

I am really divided in this question. Although I love the name Natália, I really wouldn't like to change my name so radically when the time comes. Perhaps I could try to use the feminine of my name...it exists, but it sounds so damn weird...masculine = Leandro, feminine =  Leandra...anyway I am sure it is an ununsual name for all you people outside of my country (Brazil).

Quote from: Natalia on January 25, 2014, 05:05:46 PM
I am really divided in this question. Although I love the name Natália, I really wouldn't like to change my name so radically when the time comes. Perhaps I could try to use the feminine of my name...it exists, but it sounds so damn weird...masculine = Leandro, feminine =  Leandra...anyway I am sure it is an ununsual name for all you people outside of my country (Brazil).

I think Leandra is quite pretty and feminine.