Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hi all
I have been thinking a lot about my name lately. I have talked to some girls that say "oh I have always had a female name for myself" or "I have always thought of myself as (insert name here)". I have always avoided doing this since, well if the female me had a name she would be harder to deny.  Now that I am finally past that stage of my life and am starting to get involved in the local TG community I realize I need to start thinking about a name that  matches the real me. Even though I post here as Krystal I really just grabbed that name since I thought it was pretty but really don't think its me. After  a lot of thought and poking around on baby naming websites I have worked my list down to about 6 different names I feel fit me but  am having a tough time narrowing it down more. I did find a neat site that lets you look at a list of all first names that are used with your surname. You can click the name and see how common the use of that name combination is in the general population as well as giving you some other facts about both first and last name. I found it very helpful in seeing what names go together best. It has a search feature as well as a A to Z listing (Popular surname directory:)
http://www.isthisyour.name/ (http://www.isthisyour.name/)
So I am curious, how did you choose your female name and why? Have you always had it or was it something you decided on during your transition?
Thanks
Krystal

Mine came to me in a really awesome, really vivid dream. In it, I was myself in every way and totally at peace with myself and my appearance.

It felt so comfortable and such a strong sense of identification came with it that I knew there was no way I would ever be called anything else. I haven't been as sure about anything else as I was about this.

In the dream, it was spelled Leighandra... which apparently means something about a meadow or a lion. ???

My partner and I talked about it, and she suggested different ways of spelling it. This one, we both agreed, looked better. And, to me, it felt better. :)

Quote2 Things You Didn't Know:

Your personal power animal is the Tasmanian Devil

Your 'Numerology' number is 2. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are supportive, diplomatic, analytical, and play well with others. A team-player, you seek peace and harmony in a group.

Yep, went to the site you listed and checked my name, Krystal. The site said they hadn't any knowledge of my first name. Odd, as millions of people do. In some areas of the world it's rather common.  :)

I decided on my name to honor a wonderful teacher and lover. My name is the name of his 'mistress.' He was a prince and she was a peasant, but they loved one another greatly, having grown-up together while he was hidden away to keep him from an uncle who wished to kill him.

I long to be able to show her qualities of loyalty and compassion, understanding and love. Although I would never have associated her with a Tasmanian Devil!!  :laugh: She lived far from Anzac.

I felt that to change one's name was to, in some ways, be able to try to match the new name with the person's best nature and goals. Hence, my name. It's a, for me, matter of trying to live-in to the name.

Good fortune in your choosing.

Nichole

I chose my name because its what my parents were considering calling me, if i had been born a girl.  So its kinda like righting that wrong  :).

Theres loads of reasons for choosing a name, and there really isn't a right or wrong way of choosing it.  And you can't really make a wrong choice of a name from a list of names that you like.  I agonised way to long over the name, because i wanted to get it right because it felt like such a big deal.  But imo, the actual name you choose doesn't matter that much.  I mean, yeah choosing a female name is a massive step because like you said it makes it more real, but the name isn't important just the step of choosing a name, if i'm making any sense.

My shortlist for me, was Jennifer, Caitlin (now my middle name) and Emily.  And i'd have been happy to have chosen any of them.
Oh and the name that I had for myself for like the past 6 years (before transition) was Caitlin, so Jenny is kinda pretty recent.

Well mine isn't really all that special. I started with Angel as it was a nickname I picked up in the service. Course I got it because I could handle the most difficult patients without losing my temper, and what patients they were! ::) :)

But my family hated it, and convinced me that only strippers go by that name. With my height and build it would also be a dead giveaway to my status. So I picked a name that sounded phonetically similar, Rachel. Been using that name since, even if my family still isn't happy. Can't please everyone I guess. :D

Oh this off of that sight was interesting:

Your 'Numerology' number is 7. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are spiritual, eccentric, and a bit of a loner. Introspective and analytical, you think deeply and prefer seclusion.

Scary how that actually does describe me. Wonder how a 'Numerology' number is found in the first place?

I was drawn to the Diane Keaton character in the "Godfather" films, whose name was Kay Corleone.

I took Henderson in honor of my mother.  It was her maiden name.  She left when I was seven months old, and I was able to find and reunite with her in 2000 after 58 years.

We were like twins, and the five years we had together before she died answered so many questions about why I'm the person I am.

I wrote a Mother's Day tribute to her in my blog this year:

http://anotherself.blogstream.com

Quote from: Krystal on June 14, 2008, 07:48:02 AM
So I am curious, how did you choose your female name and why? Have you always had it or was it something you decided on during your transition?

I'm not entirely sure why I picked my name. It's more like IT found ME. I kept seeing it in various places like movies (Kate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Kate Winslet, etc.) and it kept catching my eye. It seemed mature and confident, honest and direct, very female and yet not overly feminine... attributes I admired, soooooo...

I picked my middle name a few minutes before I mailed my name change order out, lol. Partly to honour my mother in law, partly because I really love the name, and the instant I said the full name together I just KNEW that was it. It "fit" perfectly.

Keep in mind you'll be signing your name on checks and receipts (longer names can be tiring), telling your name to various people (so odd spellings can get frustrating for everyone), etc. Plus you'll get older, and something that seems "cool" and hip today might seem kinda odd when you're 105 ;)

~Kate~

       As a child, all of my friends were other girls. One day we were comparing birthdays and one of the girls had hers in April. When she said "April," I became all excited, "me too!," "me too!"  Everyone laughed, and said "OK, you're April too!" and I've been April ever since.
        It wasn't a common name in 1956; I don't know if any of the girls knew at the time whether or not it really was a name, but it's the name that they gave me, and I've been known as April ever since.       

Because it is short and easy to write and spell.

Quote from: April221 on June 14, 2008, 10:47:02 AM
       As a child, all of my friends were other girls. One day we were comparing birthdays and one of the girls had hers in April. When she said "April," I became all excited, "me too!," "me too!"  Everyone laughed, and said "OK, you're April too!" and I've been April ever since.
        It wasn't a common name in 1956; I don't know if any of the girls knew at the time whether or not it really was a name, but it's the name that they gave me, and I've been known as April ever since.       

Ahhhhh, thats so sweet  :)

only strippers go by that name

In fact, its a very popular name for men in the Mexican-American community.

Quote from: tekla on June 14, 2008, 11:29:41 AM
only strippers go by that name

In fact, its a very popular name for men in the Mexican-American community.

Angel is, dear. But not Rachel. :)

It's embarrassing, but I took the name from a male character from the TV series "Firefly." :embarrassed:

I told this story before but my mom call me Anna(I guess it is easier to say than Andy) several times before when she is playing with the cat or my niece. She doesn't  know about me being TS either. As for the middle name I was looking for one with a J at the beginning because my mom named us with middle names that start with J. So I pick Jasmine because I thought it was pretty, went well with Anna, and had the same first letters as my male middle name.

Anna

I meant ANGEL, every Hispanic guy I know if I called them Rachel, well, that's a stabbin'.

10 years ago, when I was finding my place in Genderland, I decided to do "drag", and chose as my name, "Virgin Territory".  I performed for a while, and really felt at home performing as a woman, but I knew I was "different" from the other drag queens.  So when the time came to choose a feminine name, I wanted to have a name that was "close" to my drag name, so Virginia seems a good choice.

So when I send e-mails, to people that I know, I sometimes put in the subject line:

"from Virginia (not the state)"

Forename:
Origin: English (Root: Jane) ( the female version of my birth name )
Meaning: Gracious, Merciful
Surname:
Origin: The descendant of Brien, i.e., exalted, noble. ( From the Movie 'The Life of Brian'  I Love Monty Python's movies
Top 5 Facts:

   1. How well envoweled is Janet OBrien? 45% of the letters are vowels. Of one million first and last names we looked at, 11.2% have a higher vowel make-up. This means you are very well envoweled.
   2. Backwards, it is Tenaj Neirbo... nice ring to it, huh?
   3. In Pig Latin, it is Anetjay Obrienway.
   4. In ASCII binary it is...
      What is Janet OBrien in binary code?01001010 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01001111 01100010 01110010 01101001 01100101 01101110
   5. People with this first name are probably: Female. So, you are constantly overcharged for beauty products.

3 Things You Didn't Know:

   1. Janet OBrien, what is your power animal?  Your personal power animal is the Honey Badger.

   2. Your 'Numerology' number is 5. If it wasn't bulls**t, it would mean that you are adventurous, mercurial, and sensual. You seek growth through adventure and different life experiences. Although you are a critical thinker, you can sometimes over-ponder an issue.
   3. According to the US Census Bureau°, 0.379% of US residents have the first name 'Janet' and 0.0477% have the surname 'OBrien'. The US has around 300 million residents, so we guesstimate there are 542 Americans who go by the name 'Janet OBrien'..

It's the name my folks picked out if I were born male.

I've considered not changing my name at all. I see a lot of advantages to that,
but also some disadvantages. I have a unique birth name for a boy because it's actually
in the top fifty female names. It was obviously a problem as a teen and younger
but I have always liked it.

BTW, a great site to research popularity is https://ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ (https://ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/)

But if I do change I would probably use Amanda. I picked it based on four things, the
first being that it is easy to say, second everyone knows how to spell it, and third I don't
and have never known any Amanda's. And forth, I don't know any famous Amanda's. They may
exist, I just have never seen them in movies or in the news.

I think for me the biggest factor was that I had never known any, it seemed to me that was important,
especially if there was a famous Amanda... I would always be comparing myself to her, or worse some one
else doing it.

Amanda

my name came from my step-grandma when i was little, but of course the whole thing was Mickey Mouse. so most people would just call me Mouse or my hunnybear would call me Mousey. it wasn't till wwe diva Mickie James showed up that i decided to change the spelling of it. then it took researching her middle name to find one for me, i have chosen Lynette. coincidentally, James' and my spouse's both begin with L and i don't think she likes that because i think she feels i'm trying to steal something else from her. not much really sounds right with Mickie.  ;D


Warrior Princess Mickie

There was a cheerleader in my high school years named Vicki.  She was very popular and pretty, and I wanted to be her.  She wore her hair in a boyish cut and I identified with her.  I decided I, too, would be a Vicki someday.  Thus, when I started my online persona and became comfortable with being myself, I chose Vicki as my name.  Now I am Victoria (Tori) Lynn.  YAY

My mum & I discussed it & came up with Yvonne.  It's the feminised version of that other name that I don't even want to remember now.

I tried various female names starting with letter S; Sally Anne, Samantha, Sabrina.... none were quite right. I don't hate my male name, just that I'm assumed to be the gender that is usually associated with it, so I created a new name, Zythyra, from it. I like that my name has no identifiable gender.

Z

Wow thanks for all the replies y'all.
I expected to see a lot of "I just liked the name post" not really sure why though. For some  reason the names I really like don't seem to fit me. I have my list taped to my monitor and have managed to get it down to 4 now. I am in no real hurry so I am going to keep crossing them off till only one is left. Oddly enough the names left on my list start with a C or K hmmm I wonder why.
Epppppppp! >>middle name<< I have not even thought about that I guess its best to wait on that till I get my first name worked out.
Nichole now that you mention it there seem to be a lot of names that are not on that site and some of them are very common.
Krystal

Well believe it or not my name is not Buffy. My online nick is taken from the name of my first cat "Buffy the Mouse Slayer""

In terms of my actual name, that took about 6 months to choose, I never rushed and wanted something I liked and really means something to me. I started by writing down a list of names I wasnt going to use (close friends, relatives & those I didn't like).

I then wrote down a list of names that where far to young for my age (Britney, Chardonnay and those that look like parents where dyslexic). I ended up with a list of 15 names that I quiet liked. Next was to look up the meaning of each name and one stood out by a long way, which really summed up how I felt and this was the one I chose.

My middle name was easy, its in memory of a very close friend who died of breast cancer when she was 21, I loved her dearly and it will be a lasting memory of our friendship.

Finally my Surname was also changed and I took my Mothers Maiden name for a number of reasons, to protect my Children, to become more annonymous and also to remember my Mother who died before I went full time and changed  my name.

Ironically my previous initials where M.A.N... A CRUEL TWIST OF FATE.

Buffy

I'll post here even though this thread is, apparently, for the girls.

In middle school I was really tomboyish; I was into real heavy rock music and black clothes and all that. There was this one song by my favorite band called "Johnny", and as a sort of joke my friends began to call me that (probably because I was obsessed with the song and the band). Eventually I changed it to "Johnna", and joked that Johnny had "gotten a sex change" (this is before I knew anything about ->-bleeped-<- in general). I went by Johnna for several years (high school - present) and then, when I began to come to terms with myself, I began using "John". Some people have told me it's uncreative or too common, but it really means a lot to me, the name does. And anyway, to be, I guess, not-so-common, I looked up variations of the name and came across "Yochanan", the Hebrew form of the name. I was going to use Iohannes or Ioannes, but they just didn't seem to fit.

Also, my middle name, Adrian. I always liked it and used it even as a "girl". I had a good friend (biomale) with the name, and it just stuck in my head and hasn't gone away since.

As for my surname (Emonds), well, it comes from when people used to call me "Johnny Emo". I think when I do my legal change, though, I'll stick with my mother's name. It's very important to her, and it goes well with my chosen first and middle names, too.

And that's me. =]

Actually this is not my first female name. My ex gave me my first name which I used for a couple of years but then felt it did not fit me well as well as blending in with my last name.

Ok let me explain, for a italian my male first name was far from anything italian, it begins with the letter G (not Gino) and I was always asked how did italian parents name their son that. The name was picked from my mom's favorite actor. Now back to the original topic..lol. Gina blends excellent with my last name, as well as fits me and I always liked this name and personality associated with it, from GG that I knew through the years.

gina

Quote from: Tink on June 17, 2006, 01:19:45 AM
For many years I tried to fit in the sex I was born with.  and no one seemed to care about how I felt inside.  Nevertheless, when I started therapy, I met an excellent woman (my doctor).  For the very first time in my life, I felt that someone was actually listening and understanding what I was saying.   So, my female name, I owe it to her because I changed it in her honor. 

tink :icon_chick:

tink :icon_chick:

My female name is simply the Latin feminine form of my original name. My new middle name is a feminine one derived from the same Latin root as my original middle name. I still have the same 3 initials but now I've gone from a name I always hated to one I feel happy to have.

By keeping my original name in a feminine form I intended to show respect for my parents and the names they chose for me. Not that they appreciate this in the slightest! (They are very much against my transitioning)

As it turned out, I really like my new girlname, I love the sound of it, I love being named by it. It just feels totally right for me and there's no name I would like better. Coincidentally, my first name now has the same vowel pattern as my last name, so they sound nice spoken together.

Quote from: Claire de Lune on June 15, 2008, 10:05:08 AM
My first name is Joanna, which is a feminization of my birth name. Why not Joanne?  Because If I'm gonna be a girl I want a name that ends in a vowel!

I agree, I've always liked girlnames best with three syllables. Do you find that many people don't notice the final -a and keep calling you Joanne anyway?

A brief explanation.

Janet, from the 'Rocky Horror Picture Show".  I still say ' Damn it Janet" when I do something stupid.  ;D
Lynn,  An abbreviation for my ex full name. Always liked Lynn.  She would hate it if she knew.  ;D ;D
O"Brien.  Just because I'm part Irish.

Oh yeah.  I found out that Janet is a feminine version of my male name.

Love,
Janet

Years ago, I believe in early 2001, a girl I work with, Sue, knew of my 'condition', but neither of us ever figured I'd have come as far as I have. Not even close. I figured I'd just live and deal. But she said you have to have a name. I honestly never thought about it.

After thinking for a few days, I decided I liked the name Cynthia, and it was the name of John Lennon's first wife (Julian's mom). I always thought the name was pretty and I thought Cynthia Lennon was a pretty woman. So I stole it.

Fast forward a few weeks and a new girl started where I work. Her name Cynthia. We had a ton of stuff in common, but before we had a chance to compare life notes, I knew immediately, she's the one. I swear it was a soul mate deal. Sue could sense the magic immediately between us and was shocked that her name, was the one I picked out of nowhere.

The 'Original' Cyn and I were together for about two years, when we broke up. Fortunately, due to no fault of my my own. I was so hurt though, I could not use the name Cynthia. I took Shannon, figuring it covered not only both genders, but my Irish heritage as well.

Sue and others hated Shannon on me, but I was sticking with it. One of my best friends, Nicole (from whom I stole my middle name), one night was referring to me as Shannon, but I told her how others hated it. She said it was ok, but not really me. So out of nowhere, I said how about "Cynthia". She jumped immediately and said that it was perfect on me.

Hence, there it is.

Have you thought of not spending so much time in Chinatown, Claire? :)

Given names are traditionally two syllables in Chinese. 婤 Zhou is a girlname. 安 An means 'peace'. The Chinese are probably hearing your name as 婤安 Zhou-An. A third syllable wouldn't fit into the naming template in their heads.

well... my current name is just the feminine variant of my male name.

I'm really just going to use it untill i start to transition- and untill then, I'll do some window shopping... (-^.^-)

That's correct about traditional Chinese names being two syllables.  And surnames are placed first, though most give that up quickly over here.  Any glance at the SF phone book under Cho, Ching, and Chang will show why.

At my age I wanted my name to have the same initials as my birth name.  I also wanted something that fit from the decade I was born, so it would be natural.  My parents were going to name me Lawrence, but I didn't want to be Larry, and besides, the initials would be messed up. ;)

I chose Jonathan because it's very close to my given name, but choose to go by Jay, which is close to what most people call me anyway.  I don't want to go by Jon because there are a lot of Johns in my dad's stepfamily.  My middle name is also close to my given name, only a male version.

When I was a kid I identified with Jeffrey, but there are 2 Jeffs in my family already and Jeff + last name starting with F doesn't go well IMO.  I also considered James, to go by Jim, but that's my dog's name, LOL.

So Jonathan aka Jay really seemed like a good fit, I came up with it in about an hour, and it really fits and is comfortable for me.

Jay

my first & middle names are russian but i'm italian...go figure.  i chose them myself, and i love them!

One thing I noted (and even admired) about the big time drag queens was their choice of feminine names often displayed great humor and/or quite a bit of panache - Mistress Formica, Champagne Showers, and Hedda Lettuce spring to mind. The process of attempting to choose and use a feminine name was quite difficult for me for a very long time. In the first place, I tried very hard over the years to incorporate these desires into my life a way that did not seek to create a separate and discrete fantasy life based on some "secret" self, and using another name seemed to me to be going in the wrong direction, heading to an incorrect destination. Having always valued integration of self, and incorporation of that self into the real world, I sought on a personal level bring this into my life, rather than isolating myself from it. I didn't want to be someone else, but for obvious reasons it's much safer not to use your real name when you're a guy out and about in San Francisco in a miniskirt.

Moreover, everyone else (both the queens and the straights) seemed to be playing out the illusion at that level, and so not to use a feminine name would make me stand out. (Darn! There is that being afraid of standing out at a gathering of crossdressers thing again.) Moreover I've never been real happy, fond or thrilled with my real name and this provided me an opportunity to create for myself a name I could really groove on. So I figured that I should just lighten up a little bit - you know stop taking myself too damn seriously - and just go with the flow. After all, I've always wanted an alias so that I could be just like the rest of the people on the FBI's Most Wanted List. AKA, ... Besides, would it really be all that different from having a nickname?

At first I used Vicki, a direct derivation of my nickname, Vic, which is probably a common method of choosing femme names. When I went out with Kacy, my high school girlfriend, on our little sojourns thorough Sonoma Country, she always called me Leslie and I saw no reason to change that then. Matter of fact, the thought never even occurred to me. But I didn't like Lester, so Leslie didn't seem that much more attractive. Anyway, when I started going out in San Francisco the very first thing someone asked me was my name. In all the flush and rush that is that unique mix of excitement and fear that accompanies the "first time out," I hadn't even considered anything along the lines of a name. I guess that it just never occurred to me that people might be friendly and willing to strike up a conversation. By that point in my life, most of my friends were calling me Vic, and I was using it as my "nightclub / showbiz name" so I just stumbled and blurted out Vicki, and that was that, at least for the San Francisco years.

After a while however I decided I needed a surname too, particularly for presentation and correspondence, and I couldn't find anything I liked that went with either Vicki or Victoria. Not only that, but the popularity of the Victor/Victoria thing made that name seem so obvious by that point. So I began to very consciously design a name for myself. Of course, like most things in my life I completely over intellectualized it - which is my own personal field of excellence - as I'll explain in painstaking detail.

I want to stress that all this is a matter of extremely my own personal taste. I don't want to offend anyone, and if your name is somehow on the list that follows, I want to assure you that it's just my own individual taste reflecting 30 some years of experiences with various people. So I don't mean anything personal by it, I'm just trying to demonstrate the workings of my mind, such as it is.

As I thought about all this I arrived as a set of criteria that succeeded in ruling out about 95% of the available female names, which made the final selection process much easier. First I eliminated the names - and as a general rule, the variations thereof - of people in my family. So Jean, Patty, Helen, Ann, Mary/Marie/Maria, Ann, Crystal, Marcia, Candice, Marion, Liz/Elizabeth, Jessica and Laurie were off the list. Second, I did not want to take the name of any of my close friends like Eve, Rebecca and Margaret. Though several had names I liked a lot including Carol, which also unfortunately also ruled out Caroline, even though that's not her name, still ... it seemed too much like theft in some sense, stealing a personality or a persona from someone I loved. Hell, I didn't even want to use the name of anyone I knew even fairly well, so out went Joan, Annette, Cindy, Julie, Robin, Emily, Jan, Maureen, Karen and a host of others.

Added to that list were all the names I didn't like because they were attached to someone or some image that I didn't like. This included both real people and fictional characters, names that came from songs I hated - Beth I here you calling, but I can't come home right now - and in one case, a bad snack food cake: Little Debbie, Little Debbie, I'm a comin home. Some names fell into several categories, like Claire, a name tainted by association with the most miserable creature I ever met in graduate school and also the subject of that really annoying song by Gilbert O'Sullivan back in the early 70's. So all told that took care of Shelly and Shelia, Sue/Suzy/Susan, Heather, Louise, Janet, Lisa/Liza, Sonya, Brooke, Ellen, Nancy (the cartoon strip, Hated It!) and Jen/Jenny/Jennifer.

Moreover, I wanted to avoid the male/female pairs like Robert and Roberta, Andy/Andrae, Bob/Bobbie, Dennis/Denise, Eric/Erica, Glen/Glenda or Samuel and Samantha. That seemed so obvious. Its not much of a concealment or an alias and way too much like Lester and Leslie. Names that sounded butch, or were ambiguous and Trans or cross gender like Pat, Rusty, Lindsey, Ashley, Terri, or Morgan were also right out.

I didn't want something I associated with frumpy or dumpy or some waitress working the late shift at a truck stop out on the Interstate City, like Betty, Ethyl, Dotty, Mae, Flo, Zelda, Martha or Bertha. No two-parters like Mary Lou, Betty Sue or Billy Jo either - that whole concept is far to country for my taste. I also really didn't really want one of those Christian biblical type names either. Oh yeah, I really didn't like the names that ended with the IE and Y sound like Keri, Brittany, Tammy, Muffy, Sherry, Annie, Hillary, Dolly or Christi.

Not that all of this was a matter of negative thought or a simple process of elimination. There were several criteria that I tried to meet in order to come up with something Crazy, Sexy Cool. So in conformance with my tastes I tried to think of something pretty and extremely feminine, yet leaning toward tough rather than fluffy - more Nikki than Angelica. So I played around with Sharon, Veronica, Rachel, Renee, Megan, Kathleen/Katherine, Valerie, Michelle and Stephanie, all of which I liked for various reasons, but none fit just the right combination and look, and the overall design of the name was important. Others just didn't seem right. What ever I am, I really don't think I'm much of an Amanda, Evangeline, or Gwen.

Even outside events conspired in strange ways. The OJ murders happened about the time I was thinking this through, so Nicole was right off the table. Too bad, I do like the name, but it seems permanently tainted now with a stigma of "The Eternal and Archetypal Female Victim" after that. As for Nikki, I know it violates at least three of the rules. Exceptions happen.

I sought something classy, with style and sophistication - European-ish.

And unique.  So Tekla was the name of my best friend in my hippie days, a girl who helped me understand who I was, and that it was OK.  She died in car wreck at an early age, so I took it to honor her.

However, most people call me Kat, and  I really like the K sound and the general look of the letter from a graphic design standpoint. So eventually I settled on Katrina. In the 1980s a New Wave band called Katrina and the Waves, had a minor hit entitled "Walking On Sunshine," which is probably where the name stuck in my head. I liked it because it had that sort of Eastern European/Russian thing going on, and as a child of the Cold War who grew up on a steady diet of James Bond films, those Slavic names sound real sexy in a certain forbidden way, exuding the sinister danger of being a spy in the house of love perhaps, which is strange in and of itself because if I'm not mistaken, Katrina is a Dutch name.

Also by choosing Katrina I thought I could honor a couple of real cool and totally sexy woman who I have always really admired. I have a real thing for winter sports. The Summer Olympics bore the hell out of me, but I don't miss much of the Winter Olympics and I'm a pretty devoted follower of the World Cup (skiing, not soccer, which I am told also holds some sort of World Cup.) So Katrina evolved out of derivations and variations of Katerina and Katja, after Katerina Witt and Katja Seizinger, Olympic Gold Medal winners in skating and skiing respectively. It somehow seemed different, more proper even, to use the name of someone I didn't actually know, but really liked, making it more of a tribute than a theft, borrowing or appropriation. Also, I really liked Kat as a shortened version, and one should always think of the nicknames as well as the full names.

West, I explained in another post, so tekla katrina west, it became.

I didn't really choose my name, I surpose its just a female version of my old name, I use to be called Paul, then when I started transition my parents just added ''ine'' to my name and called me Pauline, I guess I would have been called Pauline if things where right from the beginning, I don't like to say ''if I was born a girl'' as far as Im concerned, I'v always been a girl with a birth defect.
How many people get to choose their name in normal circumstances, I kinda like the name Susan, maybe I would have called myself Susan, but my parents called me Pauline.

Im still not sure if the final version will be Wendy Catherine or Catherine Wendy. Catherine was the name I would have been given if born female. My Mother told me that when I was seven and I always have maintained that name in conjunction with others I have considered. I have to laugh in a way with Wendy as it started out in a another form on an on-line game I had been playing for several years. It involved into Wendy which I now use in real life dealings also. I looked it up its origin, its meaning which is almost identical to my boy name and also found it is age appropriate. It has become comfortable to me.  I also as the Wendy in Peter Pan have always felt somewhat left behind.    :(

Wendy

I was named for two great-grandfathers, and started calling myself by the female versions when I was a teenager. The ease with which the names transitioned fascinated me. I told no one and never used them publicly until I started posting here. Independently, about thirty years ago, a friend, who has since moved to Paris, started calling me Simone. When I asked ingenuously if she knew it was a female name, she replied: "I do."

S

Aeron

Posted on: June 17, 2008, 12:05:56 AM

---

I've taken an odd route to the name that I *want* to have, if I ever get around to changing my name.  At birth I was given the name George, named after my father.  When I was adopted at the age of six, I was basically given a choice by my adoptive parents, Tommy or George.  I went along with my mother's thinking, that Tommy sounded better (great logic, huh? lol).  Growing up I was called "Tommy".  Later on, in my teen years I became known as Thomas.  After graduating high school and a couple of years later, I started liking the sound of 'Tom', so that's what I started naming myself.  Getting pretty interesting, huh?   ;D  When I was introduced to crossdressing, for whatever reason Samantha was the name I was interested in.  Given that I love snow and ice, I went by Samantha Winters when crossdressed.  Fastforward about 15 years, and here I am creating my username here on Susans.  I chose Samantha.  I'm not done, though.   ;)  About a month ago, I came to the realization that Samantha is just too girly of a name for me.  I'm really a tomboy kind of girl at heart.  I went searching on the web, and because I used to play Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) a lot as a kid, I've always been interested in mythology.  I started searching for mythological characters that has personalities that matched mine.  Since I am such an aggressive, resentful bastard at times (there are a few people in my life that I would have loved to replace with six feet of soil), I chose Aeron, the God/dess (not clear on that one, but don't care too much) of Battle & Slaughter.  In fact, I like the name Aeron so much that I am in the process of legally changing my name to that.   :angel:

Aeron

*******...

I really don't know how or where I came up with it... I picked it sometime in middle school I think but Im not positive...  and I didnt have any friends with that name, nor did I know of anyone, no TV characters, no characters in books...

I don't know where it came from... but I like it and it suits me...  :)

Sides, it gives me plenty of nicknames to be called...

Raily is what most friends call me <Ray-Lee> or Lynn... and so on LoL

After coming out to my friend, and knowing I couldn't really give her any of my "chosen" names when she asked what I wished to be called I decided I will go by the name my given female name... Emily.

However, she knows many Emily's, so we decided to go with Emma between us two! I think it's pretty, and I actually like it more than Emily.

Like "Leiandra", mine too in came in a very vivid dream when I was a sophmore in H.S. Only I was locked up in a mental ward for wanting to be a girl (I passed 100% in this dream, real life right now...not so much :'( ).

I kept telling everyone that my name was 'Heather', I was very sad that my family and friends hated me, but God I felt right and only in a dream :-\

So far it has been the ONLY vivid dream I have ever had to date. I used to try and have this same vivid dream every night and also started taking nap's just to get back there...inside my head.

Needless to say I began feeling VERY depressed after that for the rest of the year, hell for the rest of H.S. and then some. Had plenty of suicidal thought's, plenty of sobbing episodes.

My father used to ask me why I wanted to sleep so much of each day away.

I still try to have that dream...weird.

I went to that web site and typed in my real (male) name and the answer's hit the nail on the head, freaked me the hell out!!! My 'Numerology' was 2, and it also said my personal power animal was the "Tasmainian Devil" I got a tattoo of that cartoon character 3 days after I graduated H.S. ...in...well...<damn> 88' everything else was spot on too!!! When I type in 'Heather', total miss, not a thing.Too bad, but I like it and I'm sticking with it.

My first name is French but used by many Italians as well.  I am half Italian so I thought it fitting to have a name that fits with my nationality.  My middle name is definitely a very common Italian name.  ;)

It's my given name :)

Hi everyone. 10 years ago I met this really beautiful lady her name was Cynthia. We were friends for a time until I moved the small town of Midland. Her name just stuck in my mind until two years later when I come out full time, I liked the name Cynthia and so I chose it for my name. My second name is Leanne, that one just came to mind and I liked it and chose it as my second or middle name. Cindy is commonly used as a short form for Cynthia.

Cindy

I first feminized my male name from Alan to Alena, then after fully accepting who and what I was, I pickewd the name my x-wife were going to use if we had a girl. It is a name I came up with and thought beautiful, so I decided to use it for my name Ariana.

Hugz to evryone,
Ari

i never had a name i was particularly attached to or anything... it wasnt really that important to me... but after coming out and thinking about it more i started trying to choose.  Basically i just started a list of female names i liked.  It helped to type them out with my last name too to see what it would look like together (im choosing to keep my last name).  I went thru some of those name sites and jotted down some that i saw that caught my eye.

I knew a few things going in.  I didnt want something too out there.. a more standard name would be better for me, and i didnt want a sort of.. unorthodox spelling of a normal name... maybe im just boring :-P.  I didnt want something that could be shortened to something i didnt like (especially didnt want something that could be shortened to a male name, eg Samantha -> Sam)
I knew i didnt want to feminize my given name (doesnt really work well in my case so.... yea)
(obviously these were criteria for me... so im not advocating or getting down on anyone who did any of the above things)

So basically I made a list.. and then narrowed it down to the top 3 or so.  Eventually me and my wife settled on one name (it was more her doing really), but basically she thought Elizabeth suited me, and I could totally picture myself signing emails and stuff Liz.  Plus i liked the fact that Elizabeth is pretty nice and formal and feminine and.. classy sounding, and liz is sort of spunky and playful... so i can sort of switch it up depending on the mood im in.

so i guess i just took the logical approach and went with it.
-Liz

I just went with a variation of my male name (Nicholas). I like being called Nick so that was there to stay. I then decided that Nicole suited me better than Nicolette or Nicola.mmm I still like Nicola though... :P

My middle name was my dads name. I'm going to change that to my grandmothers birth name (mum said she would have called my sister that if she had known it).

Nicole Anastasia, or maybe Anastasia Nicole.... :icon_writers_block:

Quote from: lizard on June 19, 2008, 03:48:08 AMa more standard name would be better for me, and i didnt want a sort of.. unorthodox spelling of a normal name...

Ah... thank you, Liz, thank you! It is so good to hear that (for a change).

When I went to Julia Serano's book reading and she autographed my copy of Whipping Girl, I told her my easy-to-spell, standard, normal name. She left the space for it blank until she'd asked me how to spell it. She explained that was because of all the unfamiliar spellings that people keep inventing for familiar names. She was glad I hadn't gone that route. What is it with the MTF world that so many of us goof up the spelling of our names on purpose? I'm looking at you, Miqqi.

Quote from: Hypatia on June 19, 2008, 10:03:47 PM
When I went to Julia Serano's book reading and she autographed my copy of Whipping Girl, I told her my easy-to-spell, standard, normal name. She left the space for it blank until she'd asked me how to spell it. She explained that was because of all the unfamiliar spellings that people keep inventing for familiar names. She was glad I hadn't gone that route. What is it with the MTF world that so many of us goof up the spelling of our names on purpose? I'm looking at you, Miqqi.

Its not just the MTF world that does it though, every parent now a days seems to be choosing obscure names or really weird spellings for their kids.

I chose my name (which isn't Jane!) at about age 5 when a new girl moved in to the neighborhood with that name and I thought it was the prettiest name I ever heard so I kept it.

When I met my birth mother at age 40 (ME, not her!) she said she was going to name me Sheila - thank gawd she didn't keep me - I HATE that name! LOL!

My mom was pregnant before having me but due to complications she miscarried.
The child was female and my mom was going to name her Nicole.

I can't help but think that the child wanted to be born and that part of her was born in me.
So I guess I didn't choose the name, my mom did, just not for me (kinda like a hand-me-down).

I can't imagine myself with another name It just fits me and sounds natural to me.   

My ascreen name is a simple, though somewhat exotic morph of my male name.  It all stems from that infamous Halloween party in 2002 that started me down this road of self-acceptance.  I was going to use "Sheila," but the stylists who transformed me from male to being passable waved that aside.  (I was still too stunned by my reflection to put up any argument!)  Thus "Chaunte" was born.

I remember a secretary once telling me that you should loudly say a name a hundred times before settling on it.  After a few years, "Chaunte" just didn't fit quite right.  It works well as a screen name, but you trip over it when you use it in conversation.

When I legally change my name, it will again be a morph of my male name, though a common & normal spelling.

I picked Madeleine because it's close to the feminine version of my male name.  I like it and the nickname it has Maddie is even closer.  That's all there is to it, no special mythological significance or anything.  I try and keep it easy on people who know me now so they don't have to make too much of an adjustment.

Quote from: Chaunte on June 22, 2008, 12:46:44 PMAfter a few years, "Chaunte" just didn't fit quite right.  It works well as a screen name, but you trip over it when you use it in conversation.

How do you pronounce it? If I guess, I'm sure to get it wrong.

About 20 years ago I was thinking what I would call myself if I had been born female, and I came up withthe name Christine.

2 years ago I was with my mother going through some memorabilia, and she pulled out a wrinkled sheet of paper boys names she had been considering just before I was born. On the back of the sheet were even more girls names and circled was the name "Christine".

She said that I was a surprise when I was born because she had been convinced she was expecting a girl, and that would have been my name.

I'm sure I have never seen the sheet before, and it might just be chance, but it does make me wonder if the subconcious desires of parents aren't passed down to us

In the news today is the bride in Virginia (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062301087.html) who is accused of being a man. She was outed when after her marriage she applied for a name change to-- get this-- Penelopsky Aaryonna Goldberry.
<GROAN>
This is what I mean about goofy names.

Shortly after I came out to my wife we sat down and over the course of several weeks went through every name on one of those baby name sites.  We kept a list of all the possibles (for me and her once she realized she needed to change her name too).  As we neared the last of their names I was going over the short list and picked two that I like for first and middle name but neither Kyra Veronica nor Veronica Kyra quite fit.  Then with about 2 dozen names left I spotted it.  As soon as I saw Valerie I knew that's who I was.  Which caused this conversation with the wife:

Val: Valerie is it.  I'll keep Kyra as my middle name.
Wife groans.
V: What?
W: Valerie Kyra?  Val Kyra?  Valkyrie?
V: Screw it.  I like it.  It's me.

Val

I was going to choose Alexandra, to keep it close to a family name (Alexander), but I didn't really like that. So I chose something that I felt was close. And my middle name, Corinne, was my grandmother's, on my father's side, name. And my last name, I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it or change it. Depends on how my parents take it all once I come out :x

xoxo
Ali

Valkyrie means a powerful female mythological being-- pretty impressive. I like it.

There's nothing weird about "Tasha" in Russian, short for Natasha, a nickname for Natalia. It's neat.

Valkyrie is pretty awsome.
live that one up :)

i was named after a cat that i named.  penny was a stray who started hanging out with my mother-in-law.  once it was clear she was here to stay we had to take her to the vet and get her checked out, fixed if needed, and on and on....on the way my wife was reading the letter from the vet, seems we needed a name...it came naturally as all the expense was being related...."Lord," i said, "all that and she ain't worth a penny!"  hiya penny!

penny, it turns out, was a rather mischievious little critter.  she was always into something.  it didn't take long before yelling "penny!!!" at her would garner not much more then an ear twitch.  so somewhere along the way i added an emphatic "JANE".....PENNYJANE!!!"  well, it worked sometimes.

and then the computer age:  and then yahoo and an anomyous id.  shoot, pennyjane would work.  so, i came by it rather accidentally.  my first choice was always susan.  i always felt like a susan.  but when it came time for the legal change it seemed as if half the world already knew me as pj, and my sweet wife informed me that in fact i wasn't a susan at all, i was a pennyjane.  not penny jane, nosiree...that would be just too easy.  she insisted on one word, pennyjane!  now half of all my legal documents say pennyjane and the other half penny jane...<sigh> guess i'm just destined for a wierd name.

Quote from: Krystal on June 14, 2008, 07:48:02 AM
Hi all
I have been thinking a lot about my name lately. I have talked to some girls that say "oh I have always had a female name for myself" or "I have always thought of myself as (insert name here)". I have always avoided doing this since, well if the female me had a name she would be harder to deny.  Now that I am finally past that stage of my life and am starting to get involved in the local TG community I realize I need to start thinking about a name that  matches the real me. Even though I post here as Krystal I really just grabbed that name since I thought it was pretty but really don't think its me. After  a lot of thought and poking around on baby naming websites I have worked my list down to about 6 different names I feel fit me but  am having a tough time narrowing it down more. I did find a neat site that lets you look at a list of all first names that are used with your surname. You can click the name and see how common the use of that name combination is in the general population as well as giving you some other facts about both first and last name. I found it very helpful in seeing what names go together best. It has a search feature as well as a A to Z listing (Popular surname directory:)
http://www.isthisyour.name/ (http://www.isthisyour.name/)
So I am curious, how did you choose your female name and why? Have you always had it or was it something you decided on during your transition?
Thanks
Krystal

Amie: it's cute, only two syllables, and has a delicate/feminine feel to it. Not to mention, I always wanted a girl name that's in a song: Pure Prairie League, "Amie". LOL. Gotta love it.

Hi Ali Noir. I love the name Corrine, it reminded me of the song Corrina, Corrina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thAbnp5EC-U

Cindy

Well I have finally narrowed my choice of names down to 2, Carrie or Katie.
While I am really not in a hurry with this so many of the  folks I have met in the local TG community say they just can't see me as (insert male name here). * smiles *  I know that until it's changed legally  I am not locked into any choice I make  however it seems like it will be a pain in the tail and a bit confusing for me and others to be  Katie for now then a different name later. So I really want to choose a name I will stick with from now on. I hope that makes sense. I like both of these names equally and might just have to ,draw from the hat so to speak, to make my final decision.
I greatly appreciate all of your input on this since picking names seems to be one of the harder things for me to do. Even for my cats it can take me months to name them. *giggles*
Krystal

I read my name in a collection of short stories by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. In fact, there were two male characters, in different stories, named Shay. I immediately loved the name. Two years before I went full time, I legally changed my middle name to Shay and started going by it. In the UK it may be a male name but where I live every Shay I know is female.

I think it sounds soft and simple, and it suits me perfectly. I've had any number of compliments about my name, which I really love since i chose it lol.

There aren't many other Shays, at least not here. One evening I was at a function and there was another gal named Shay there. I actually was a little put out about it lol. I wanted something distinctive, but that wouldn't sound bizarre.

I'll tell a little story. (hey, sit back down) I read a book called "A Good Dog" in which a man got a dog that cringed every time it heard its name, because it had mostly heard it when it screwed up. So a trainer suggested changing it. The man did, and that entire reaction vanished because the new name had no negative connotations. I feel the same way. I hate my old name while my new one has always been joy to me.

The only other name I even considered was Shannon.

Why not use the name Shannon as your stage name, unless it's been taken up. Or you could do what many here do by adding a number or something at the end of your name. I couldn't use just Cindy so I added the bc at the end, short for British Columbia where I live.

Cindy

My girlfriend and I had been throwing names around, mostly her, hehe...  Anyway, I had at first thought of Virginia Lee as first and middle.  Virginia because of Robert Heinlein's wife, I always loved her nickname of Ginny.  And Lee is my current middle name and I like it and needed a first name that went with it.  So one day I was tossed Carrie and the only thing coming to my mind was the movie and I didn't really want to go around thinking of that movie every time someone called out my name.  But a variation of that pronunciation, Kara, seemed to fit me very well.  Since I plan to keep my last name it also had to go with that and I think they all work well together.
Only recently did I realize that both Kara and Lee are 2 main characters of the recent Battlestar Galactica.  I just wonder how long it will be before people start calling me Starbuck, lol 

Hi Kara Lee, I like that name. I loved all the Star Trek movies especially Captain Janeway of Star Trek Voyager. At the time I was living alone and never missed an episode they were my surrogate family. I also loved Star Wars and Star gate, especially Jack Oneal.  Welcome aboard Lieutenant Starbuck. Ensign Paris will see to it your luggage is taken to your new quarters, and he will show you around our formidable starship Lady Voyager. Later Mr Neelix will see you to brief you of our mission and your position and obligations in this mission to Betelgeuse.  ;D :icon_bumdance-nerd: :icon_drunk: Bon Voyage.

Cindy

Initially I had tried thinking of a new name and couldn't find one that I absolutely liked. One day I realized that I already had my name picked out for me...my last name. Since I had a girl's name for my last name (at least how it was pronounced) I decided to just switch my first and last name around and I had my name.

I know that some people would advise against this since it still has a connection with my male name and if I wanted to go stealth it could possible come back to me later on, however, I am fairly certain that I will never go completely stealth. Since my family is very accepting, my friends are very accepting, and everyone I've met so far is very accepting I have no need to hide that part of me altogether if it happens to come up. I, of course, don't go blurting out that I'm trans, but I'm not exactly hiding it either.

Mine came out of a book that for some stupid reason was a favorite of my mom. She had the names "Jody" or "Jodie" all picked out for me..and actually it is on my birth certificate as a middle name...because she didn't want me to carry on the first name of my father..for reason that I have posted in my story.

I never really liked it much, but then I found the name to be rather unique where I live and it can be said phonetically without any real gender reference in it at all..so I kept it.

The soppy book by Marjorie soppy Kinnan soppy Rawlings called "The soppy Yearling"....was turned into a soppy movie with the soppy boy character having the same name..and mom just got it from there. I added the "Blonde" part...and I believe that the final "e" makes it female...the jury's out on that though as I can't get a good reference to that spelling. But I like it even if I can't Google it. 

Flo

Real simple.  I have BS degree in hoticulture/greenhouse  managament. 

Flower...Floriculture...Flo...

Flo and Eddy...don't know them

Still like Flo

ME!

Ahhh!

Flo & Eddie    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flo_&_Eddie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flo_&_Eddie)

aka: Eddie & The Fluorescent Leech     http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sDlAlFh3L._SL160_.jpg (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sDlAlFh3L._SL160_.jpg)

aka: The Turtles!      http://www.theturtles.com/ (http://www.theturtles.com/)

Quote from: cindybc on July 07, 2008, 02:07:21 AM
Hi Kara Lee, I like that name. I loved all the Star Trek movies especially Captain Janeway of Star Trek Voyager. At the time I was living alone and never missed an episode they were my surrogate family. I also loved Star Wars and Star gate, especially Jack Oneal.  Welcome aboard Lieutenant Starbuck. Ensign Paris will see to it your luggage is taken to your new quarters, and he will show you around our formidable starship Lady Voyager. Later Mr Neelix will see you to brief you of our mission and your position and obligations in this mission to Betelgeuse.  ;D :icon_bumdance-nerd: :icon_drunk: Bon Voyage.

Cindy

Well I guess I'll repost sense my post for this one got deleted. I will be different but it will have the same idea.

Yay! Another Sci-Fi lover. I'm one to. I do enjoy watching star trek and stargate. I love both Series too. Plus I've seen all three Stargate movies.  :icon_yikes: :eusa_shhh: I mean two movies. please don't call the copy right police.

Oh ya. I got my female name from my dreams and meditative visions. I kept on hearing that name and wonder why was I being called Amrisa. Finally I took me to talk to my "real self" in a vision to convince me that I should be my female name. Believe me it wasn't easy to find out.

Well, my name is Mi'Shauna, which is close to my birth name. After several name changes (not legal of course), I came up with a first and last name that is somewhat similar to my name right now, so that its easier for some...

Quote from: JodieBlonde on July 11, 2008, 12:40:42 AM
Ahhh!

aka: The Turtles!      http://www.theturtles.com/ (http://www.theturtles.com/)

So Happy Together!  ;D

Z

I picked it because of a girl I liked a long time ago.  Who that girl is will remain a secret that only I will know.  ;D

Hi Amrisa Jones hon, well I am just a wee bit peeved about loosing a whole mess of posts myself, but they weren't deleted by anyone. It appears that we experience some frequent down time on this board for what ever reason, but everything stays OK if they are short duration down times. We got a long one a few months back and lost not only a couple days worth of posts, but entire threads as well, then we had another long one about three days ago now, and again lost a couple of days worth of posts. They should shoot their server and put it out of it's misery and get a new one. "hee, hee, hee." that's about the limit of my computerees language.

Well of course I do love sci-fi and rock music. I am not anything like the rest of the sixty year old folks I know, I prefer the younger generation.  ;D By the way JodieBlonde hon My Wing Walker loves the Turtles and we both love Oldies Goldies as well.

Cindy 

Dear, the sixty year olds of today were rock-n-rollin in the Sixties to the likes of Jefferson Airplane. Don't you need somebody to love?

You know how in the film A Clockwork Orange, Alex's mom was this old lady in a miniskirt? Well that story was set in approximately right now-- around the end of the first decade in the 2000s-- and sure enough you can find women who were young in the Sixties still in miniskirts today... at the time people took it as a joke... but now it's real.

Hi Hypatia, You are quite correct but what I don't get is most of the other folks I see, are hobbling around with walking sticks and wheelchairs goodness gracious I certainly hope it wasn't from dancing to rock and roll. I do have a friend at the women's shelter where I work who is a really right on lady. She's an old hippie and has long grey hair. I guess I take after my mom, I still don't have any grey hair on my head and wear it long and when it's warm out I love wearing knee length sundresses. I walk a mile or more per day. I stay active.  Jefferson Airplane and Clockwork Orange I am quite familiar with, Big Brother and the Holding Co, Steppenwolf, Oh goodness and the list continues.

Cindy

Just a little update. I finally picked Katie as my name. I am not sure why other than it seems to fit right when I think about myself hmmm kind of like my inner voice has always had that name. *bounces* I am not even going to worry about a middle name at this point but it will prolly be something common like Ann. Anyways I know its a small thing but is one more step in the right direction in accepting myself and becoming who I was meant to be.
Katie

Krystal

I won't worry about a middle name unless you really want one.  My Mother never had a middle name ever and she lived to be 80.

Janet

Well it was kind of the name just got me in the back, i was about 10 and i had cats as pets and one of my friends started to call me Kitty i don't know why but it just took along with me...

I could never have gone with the feminized version of my birth name since I despised that moniker soooo much (still not fond of it even now) and getting rid of it officially was one of the best days of my life.

I wanted a name that sounded pretty to my own ears, and I have this crazy thing where I like some letters of the alphabet a lot more than others, so a lot of names got ruled out on that basis alone. I gave some thought to Lisa, but decided against it for a few different reasons; I liked Lynsey but didn't know how to spell it and none of the L names would have gone with my middle name anyway. I thought of Vicki but I have a relative by that name so I decided against that too. I gave a little bit of thought to Mise which is a Gaelic word meaning "I, me" (I'm a big fan of Enya and she sings a lot of Gaelic) but thought people would struggle with spelling/pronunciation (MEE-sha). I also seriously considered Athena which would have been great given my intellectualism but I knew nobody would pronounce that right (it's /ʌtʰɛ:'nɑ:/ not /ʌ'θi:nʌ/ *cringe*) and feared it might stand out too much.

I had been considering Julia as my name all along and it's a name I've always liked. (And not because of the really cute actress on Seinfeld but that couldn't have hurt, haha.) I thought I could use the three syllable form professionally and shorten it to Julie among friends. In the end I decided to just go with Julie, and eventually I came to shorten that one step further in casual interaction. Carly Simon did a song with my name in it, so yay for that. And I even know the Indo-European root and pre-form that its from: yū-l-yā which meant "little youthful one". :D It kind of fits because I'm very youthful in a few non-chronological ways, even if at my height I'm anything but little. :P

My middle name was originally given to me in honor of my aunt who disappeared when she was about 12. (Her middle name was Lee as well.) I wasn't born yet so I never knew her and from the way my mother describes her I really wish I could. So I decided to keep my middle name, even if Julie Lee is a bit repetitive.

My name's a combination of the first names of my two nans:  Annette & Jeanne.  Keen, innit?

Hmm... Julia, you may tear your hair out to know I pronounce my name the English way-- /haI 'peI ʃ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esh_%28letter%29)ə/ instead of Ancient Greek /hy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_front_rounded_vowel) pʌ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_unrounded_vowel) 'ti: ʌ/ (or even Modern Greek /i pa 'ti: a/)-- sorry, babe... but anyhow I'm glad to meet someone else who can write in IPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA). In Greek my name means 'supreme, highest' and derives from proto-Indo-European *upəto- 'high' (related to *upo 'up', source of English "up" and "above").

I think Julia is a classically beautiful name, a great choice. Do you introduce yourself with the Latin pronunciation "Yulia"?

Wow it didn't even occur to me that your name could be pronounced that way. In my mind I've been reading it in the ancient Greek way although I assumed the iota was probably short and the final alpha long.

Quote from: Hypatia on July 16, 2008, 03:29:38 AMI think Julia is a classically beautiful name, a great choice. Do you introduce yourself with the Latin pronunciation "Yulia"?

Thank you! But like I said my legal name doesn't have the A - it's just Julie.... I'm not in the habit of using the Latin pronunciation, although since I've taken the French spelling and I'm mostly French by descent maybe I should start introducing myself as /ʒy'li/. :D

As for the IPA, well it's 'cuz I'm a polyglot. ;D

All my life my mother reminded me that the name she choose for me was Biirtha, after her mother. The spelling is my own hoping to get people to pronounce it the way my mother said it.
I believe are parents always had two names for us.

I know some girls and guys have gone to the names lists for the year they were born to decide which would fit best for them. I mean if you are over 40 years taking a name like Destiny may have people wonder. Stay away from the Drag queen names you do not want to be known as Iwanna Man, although it is good advertising.

Also make sure your first and last name do not give you weird looks. I sort mail for medical offices and have come across some strange combinations. such as:
former NASCAR driver Dick Trickle
Harry Guy (a customer once at my job.....he was bald!)

Just added that for the humor.
I mean we have the head of one of our hospitals with the name of Dr. Dickout.
There is also Dr. Wong Ting. What about Dr. Wang. There is Dr. Andy Belch or as some mail comes Dr. A. Belech.

I have found combinations like to chuckle about on this topic:
This is how it appears in the phone book remember last name first.
Short, Dick
Beavers, Harry
Ho, Phat
Hoare, Anita
Wacker, Harry
Cox, F. Cox
Rection, Hugh G.
Hiscock, Philip
Craven, Dick
This one is a good one, wonder is that just advertising on his part:
Dickgragger, Rev. William R.
Rubright, Richard(what is the nick name for Richard, Dick)
Now a name we may want but that may mean some extra medical work:
Doubledee, Kristie
Belch, Verbyl
Long, Harden
Iona, Dickey
Iona, Bump

Hope this helps for name choices. :laugh: >:D

You might want to add;  Richard Cranium.

 a friend pick out the name from me Alexis i

My name "min" is part of my real Korean name, in American standards I think it can pass as a girl name. Another reason I chose it was because in one of the fantasy series I've read Wheel of Time there was a tomboy named Min, who was really boyish but developed into a beautiful swan.

I chose my name in a simple manner, I asked my mom what she would have named me if I was born a girl, Carolyn Ann Schaible was the name and thus I took it as my name
To me not only does it feel right, but it's a way I can still be her child because she named me.
I don't know if that makes sense but hey

Mine is Medina. I always loved this name and also it's a bit of slap in the face to my Muslim heritage. After I came out of the closet half of my family disowned me so choosing the name of the second most important city in Islam as my new female name was a right "two-finger salute" to them. It's petty but it makes me smile every time someone calls me by my new name.

I chose my name by making a list of names that I liked and that fit, then narrowing it down by crossing off ones with which I had bad associations or were names of family and friends. There's no real meaning behind it other than me liking it and having no bad associations.  And I must say how 'real' choosing a name makes the whole process feel.  I chose the name Natalie only a few days ago and I'm still riding off that sort of high I got when I chose it.  I'm still unsure about if I'm going to change my last name or not.  I probably will, as nothing really goes well with my current one.

My first name didn't feminise (Scott), so I went for the feminine form of my middle name (Andrew- Andrea). Kinda boring. I was asking friends for suggestions but I didn't like anything they came up with, and I was going to go for something cool but Andrea was all I could think of that felt comfortable. I'm still thinking of having a cool stage name though, the main contender so far is "Abortion Hackett".

well my mom and i just kinda shouted out random names and when we came to my name i knew it was for me cause it just kinda fit ya know, btw my real names krista. funny thing though, all my friends like to call me avril, av or avie because of my stricking similarities to te singer avril lavigne. :P

I often wondered about it so over a period of many conversations with my parents I figured out the hypothetical naming system of siblings that never were. I'm biologically male and I have a little sister who was born after me.

Her name is Emma and mine Martin... I won't say surnames. However there were 2 second preference names aswell  had we been 2girls or 2boys. Those supplementary names were Eleanor (Ellie) and Matthew (Matt).

In reality as I was born first and had I been born female my name would have been Emma and her's Ellie, things didn't work out that way but I'm fine with it.

I kinda like it... Ellie... I've never had a nickname irl.