Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hey all :)
Was just sitting around wondering if any of you folks out there kept or are keeping either your first or middle birth name? or even the whole thing?  just curious because I'm keeping my name that I've always gone by (my middle name), and i didn't know if I was the only one....:D

Hi Rae,
  I kept my first name but spelled it a little different. I changed my middle name and I go by that name-Sheila. Hind sight, I should have put my middle name as my first and used my first name as my middle. It is just a little bother but going to leave as is.

Yes, my middle name has become my last name

my current first name will be my future last name. :)

I change everything, but my first name is a feminization of my male first name.  Totally unintentional.

Janet

I'm just dropping the Jr and changing my first name.  I've gotten people at work calling me Lee now so when I change my name at work they will already be using the name I want them using, hehe.

Hmmm...good to know I'm not the only one :P
thanks for the replies all :D

Well I'm keeping parts of my original first and middle name. The "An" is part of my male first and "Jas" are part of my male middle name. I was trying to have feminine first name that sounded similar to my male nickname also my mom call me Anna couple times(which is weird because she thinks I'm straight and knows nothing about me being transsexual) and the middle name was for just the middle initial. My mom gave all her kids middle name that start with J.

Anna Jasmine

Michelle Josephine.

The fem' version of my given name.

For now out of respect for my folks.

I might change my mind though if they outright reject me, after I go public.

I still haven't decided on a perferred nicknmame though.

Michelle.

I completely changed my first name and feminized my middle name.

I gave it a lot of thought.  Keeping my current name (and only feminizing the spelling), to my mind, would have linked me with my past.  I wanted to make a pretty complete break from mine.  But I kept the feminized spelling of my middle name as a badge of honor as a result from a traumatic childhood experience.  (And who hasn't had one of those!)

-Sandy

I kept both my names!

My mad mum gave me an Armenian girl's name from birth and although I hated it as a kid it's cool and unusual so I just kept it. Goes well with my family name of Spanish origin.

I had a male middle name which I got rid of via Deed Poll, a very cheap and simple matter here in the UK.

I kept my initials the same - part of a family tradition for first-born that goes back hundreds of years.

Ashley is my middle name so It's becoming my first name and Renee is going to become my middle name.

When I changed my name I kept all of my original initials and my surname.

Jay

Changed first and middle name, kept last name.  I wanted to take my grandmother's (father's side) maiden name but decided against it.  My first and last initials are the same as they were before though.

I am going to be keeping my last name in it's entirety.  I changed my first and middle names to something I really loved ..... and that's how I came up with Jennifer Elizabeth.

Elizabeth seams to be a very popular middle named. Mine is Cameron Elizabeth. My birth middle name also started with an E but that had nothing to do with my choice.

My spouse actually chose my name for me. Its what she was going to name her oldest child if it had been a girl.

Being horribly un-original, I kept my first name (mostly) and just feminized my middle name,  Last name stayed the same too.  Boring I know. 

Beni

I know an elderly woman named Beni. She is anything but boring  :laugh:

As others have; my last name use to be my middle name.
Cindy James

I have one of those last names the other kids always made fun of in school, so I'm going to change it to be the same as my SO, who also more or less gave me my first name. I'll probably keep my male first name as a middle name, or maybe feminize it which is easy to do. Maybe I'll just keep them all and have one grand long name!  :laugh:

I originally intended my first name to start with K like my male name did so my initials would stay the same but I really liked Margaret so after a few months, I decided that was it. I kept the Kay as my middle name. I use that as my business name to clients who know me before I transitioned. 

Ironically my previous initials were M.A.N.

I changed the lot, first, middle and surname.

Rebecca

Ok,  I'm not really boring at all either.  ;-)

Beni

I'm just going to add an "a" onto the end of my first name, but change my middle name, and of course I'm going to keep my last name (I'll only change that if I ever get married again   :) ).  Basically change from Shawn Christopher ------> Shawna Cynthia.  I know it's not very creative.

My middle name is Ashley, I was going to change it because I wanted to get rid of all vestages of my male identity but I ended up keeping it. My little sister named her daughter Ashley after me and she threatened me with death if I changed it, lol.

I kept my name just as it was, Michael Beverly, but go by Beverly.  Someday I might change it to Beverly Michael



Bev

I feminized my middle name and used it as my first name, and am using my mothers middle name as my middle name.


Paula Denise.

I kept my middle initial only but scrapped the name.  It's my mother's name and it felt very, very strange to be erasing her from my identity. I spoke to her about it, she said she didn't care, but I couldn't get over it. 

I'm changing both my first and middle names, My surname will remain the same

I've thought about the name thing a lot and ultimately I'm going to keep the first few letters of each so it still feels authentic.

I am having my own unique name, Janet Merai Aila :3

I created that name long ago as my female mental identity and plan to pursue that identity :)

My real first name could be feminized, I may do that, I may not. I am not sure if I want to erase my past or not, since I do love my first name, it sounds feminized already except the ending.

Paulina/Paul is not my real first name.

Im still considering name a little, same boat Paulina is in actually, im unsure if i want to use a new name, or feminize my current name, Emery into Emily, i like how it sounds! But im still thinking just incase I find that perfect name from the heart :)

My surname - which I kept - is actually a diminutive of a female Christian name.  It got me teased a bit at school and since it sounds as if it might be a nickname based on a shortening of my "real" surname, many people have assumed it was a nickname and so have adopted it from each other. After a while, I gave up trying to stem the tide and the end result is that I've been called and known just by that female-sounding name by most people throughout my life.

- which is quite ironic considering that I was hiding being transgendered for 50+ years.

When I began transition and did change my name, I feminised my forename to Stephanie and chose a middle name that kept my initials the same.
I figured that Steve to Stef wasn't such a hard jump for my family and friends.

Quote from: Rae09 on April 05, 2009, 08:35:13 PM
Hey all :)
Was just sitting around wondering if any of you folks out there kept or are keeping either your first or middle birth name? or even the whole thing?  just curious because I'm keeping my name that I've always gone by (my middle name), and i didn't know if I was the only one....:D

No, I changed it all. I didn't want any conection with someone saying 'oh  are you related to'. I prefered a clean sweep.

Surname yeah but not first or middle.

I have an aversion to "feminized" names LOL! (But that's my hang-up!) I wouldn't do that to my kids so I sure wouldn't do it to me either. There are SO MANY beautiful names for girls, why pick a "feminized name"????

Fortunately I found my real name at age 5 and it has been with me ever since (OMG that's 54 years! LOL!). For the legal change of name, I have 3 given names and they are all feminine names. If I had known I was going to be disowned, I would have changed my  surname as well and gone with something more typical of my ancestry.

Quote from: Northern Jane on April 18, 2009, 06:32:03 AM
I have an aversion to "feminized" names LOL! (But that's my hang-up!) I wouldn't do that to my kids so I sure wouldn't do it to me either. There are SO MANY beautiful names for girls, why pick a "feminized name"????

Fortunately I found my real name at age 5 and it has been with me ever since (OMG that's 54 years! LOL!). For the legal change of name, I have 3 given names and they are all feminine names. If I had known I was going to be disowned, I would have changed my  surname as well and gone with something more typical of my ancestry.

...and I've noticed some who go for overtly modern feminine names which wouldn't have been around when they were born.

I changed both my first and middle names. I kept my last name the same. I briefly considered changing it, to cover my past in case I switched jobs etc., but I didn't want my kids to feel as if I were abandoning them any more than they were already struggling with.

There are benefits to keeping the same initials if you can (in the space of time when you start transition but before you get legal docs changed).

I used one name 10-12 years ago ("Sarah") when I first contemplated transition. That name didn't feel right this time, and "Jennifer" just popped into my head as my name. (Note: I kept Sarah as my middle name.) My male name was similar -- just a softer more winsome name in tone -- and I just knew this was my name.

I had someone say "Why on earth did you change from the most popular male name from your age group to one of the most popular female ones when you could have picked anything?" Well...... I just knew my name.

I have a birth first name that is just too easy to mock in a lot of ways, and I wanted to lose it. I've kept some of the sounds, though, and the one I've chosen has family heritage. My birth last name has the same problem, and while I don't mind it so much, I figured that a clean slate made a sense. My new one shares an etymology with my old one, but I'm guessing not many people will trace it through multiple languages. :)

hi.. yes to that . some of you will know ... noel ..edward... Loch-head ...
   . to  noeleena .. edwina ..   no-el   is female as well . so its good the last name is the same . i have two other names just have not found any  female names that would suit them ... an other day may be .
...noeleena...

actually I know this issue quite well. my situation is different then most. I was born with a unisex (actually feminine leaning ) First name! Most trans people tell me how envious they are of me! but the real issue is my middle name. You see one year prior to my birth (and I mean on the day) my great grandfather died...the name is in his memory. So you might see how changing it seems out of the question, I've considered a feminization but that's the most I'd promit myself to do.

I hope it will not be much of a problem, my family normally dont use my name, but other names. I've dont used their given names on them as well. So maybe they are not comfortable with it either. I guess I will find out when I breach the subject.

Two days ago I signed the papers to change my name legally.  Some of my friends thought I would feminize my first name, but I never liked it.  But in the end I slid it to be my middle name.  After all, that is my history.

I like the name Katherine.  It doesn't hurt that Katherine Hepburn was one of my idols.

My first two initials will now by KD.  It doesn't hurt that I think KD Lang is wonderfrul.

For some reason, I didn't even consider changing my last name.  It's unusual and has always been who I am.  And I feel no need to break with my family.

One more step in finally becoming Kate.

Well, my parents decided that "a strapping young Swede" needed a "good, strong name".

So basically, I'm changing it completely.

I'm thinking Elizabeth Rosine Greenwell...

My family is WAY old fashioned so my current last name is my daddies name with -son on the end. D: Not really working for me.

Quote from: PnkJaguar on April 28, 2009, 11:47:32 PM
Well, my parents decided that "a strapping young Swede" needed a "good, strong name".

So basically, I'm changing it completely.

I'm thinking Elizabeth Rosine Greenwell...

My family is WAY old fashioned so my current last name is my daddies name with -son on the end. D: Not really working for me.

Well, a strapping young Swede should have his daddy's name for a last name.  I know Icelanders still use patronymics, but I didn't know Swedes do.  And yes, that definitely complicates things.  ;D

BTW Elizabeth is my daughter's middle name and what my name would have been if when I was born they had seen that I was really a little girl.  I've always liked it.

So, welcome, Elizabeth.

- Kate

Quote from: K8 on April 29, 2009, 08:23:01 AM
Well, a strapping young Swede should have his daddy's name for a last name.  I know Icelanders still use patronymics, but I didn't know Swedes do.  And yes, that definitely complicates things.  ;D

BTW Elizabeth is my daughter's middle name and what my name would have been if when I was born they had seen that I was really a little girl.  I've always liked it.

So, welcome, Elizabeth.

- Kate

Haha, that's the thing, they generally don't. :P My family is just weird.

Aww, that's nice, and thank you so much!

Mine is a similar sounding name to my given name: Madeleine (pronounced mad-eh-lynn).  My middle name is going to be the one my parents would have named me had I been born a girl: Isabella.  Though my last name I'm going to keep.  I'm pretty close with my family and I don't want to get rid of the last name.

 :icon_chick: Yes I kept the last part of my male name( My Surname ) Young now I'm known as a young lady LOL ;)

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Post Merge: May 01, 2009, 08:47:55 PM

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The name Wendy has a meaning to it . It was given to one of my younger sisters who passed away as a baby when I was about a year old .So I thought I would use it in memory of her.  :(

My last name is too distinctive - I'm changing the whole thing.

I will not have a middle name this time around.

It's funny how things change.

My parents decided to be rational - talking things through, being rather accepting.  As a gesture of goodwill, I filed the name change paperwork w/ my former first name being my middle name.

My mother picked out a name for me when she was 14 years old - she is just as attached to it as I am unhappy with it.  This is a fairly serious thing for me - I just hope one day she sees that.

Quote from: Northern Jane on April 06, 2009, 10:59:18 AM
I kept my initials the same - part of a family tradition for first-born that goes back hundreds of years.

Same situation here- but it only applied to male children, so I went from A to Z.

Zoe Ellen rather than Alan Edwin. I chose "Ellen" so if anyone slips, they can cover the faux pas by pretending they were using my middle name. Not that that's happened since the first year.

My boy is A.E.Brain though.

Quote from: Kathrin on May 15, 2009, 10:26:15 AM
It's funny how things change.

My parents decided to be rational - talking things through, being rather accepting.  As a gesture of goodwill, I filed the name change paperwork w/ my former first name being my middle name.

My mother picked out a name for me when she was 14 years old - she is just as attached to it as I am unhappy with it.  This is a fairly serious thing for me - I just hope one day she sees that.

That's nice.  It really helps if your family is willing to try accepting your transition.  It can be a real struggle for them, but it is wonderful if you can work through it together.

Good luck, Kathrin.
- Katherine

Quote from: ZoeB on May 16, 2009, 01:29:15 AM
My boy is A.E.Brain though.

Is that why your blogspace is named that way?  It makes sense if it does.

BTW:Nice to see you posting here.

-Sandy

Quote from: Rae09 on April 05, 2009, 08:35:13 PM
Hey all :)
Was just sitting around wondering if any of you folks out there kept or are keeping either your first or middle birth name? or even the whole thing?  just curious because I'm keeping my name that I've always gone by (my middle name), and i didn't know if I was the only one....:D

No, I changed it Cloe' and I have not decided on a middle name yet.