When my mom was pregnant with me, my parents were told that I was a girl.  Everything, including my name, was decided.  For me, choosing that first name was a way to acknowledge their choice as parents. 

For my middle name, I compiled a list of my 25 favorite names, then gave the list to my spouse and asked her to choose my middle name.  She's been my guiding light through transition, and much like a mother has taught me everything I've needed to know to transform me into the woman that I am today.  From demeanor and mannerisms, to fashion and makeup, I am in many ways like the daughter that she never had, and out of respect and love for her I felt it was only right to allow her to choose my middle name.

After all the serious first and middle name stuff, my last name was a bit different.  In order to build a new identity and "go stealth," I decided to choose a different last name.  Google is a great resource, but a Google search of my family name, or my mothers maiden name, (both very uncommon) would have made it pretty easy to find me.  I instead chose a very common last name to blend into obscurity.  If you do a search for my first and last name, you'll have to dig through thousands of pages of porn, because I share the same name (unintentionally) with a porn star.  Happy hunting to all who wish to dig up my past.   

Mine was easy, my born male name is James, throughout my life some people called me a derivative as Jamie, so it was a natural not to far off my real name, easy to remember and as a girl go by Jamie.

Jamie

Here's to hoping that I didn't already post here before (Too lazy to go double check)

I took Darius because my dad's name is David, and my late grandfather's name is Delmar, so choosing something with a 'D' at the start just felt like the right choice. I surfed baby name sites for weeks, and made lists of the ones that I liked. I had some people use them on me in order and the very first time someone said 'Darius,' I had this lightbulb moment and more or less shouted, "OMG! THAT'S IT!"

As for my middle name, it's Gray now. Darius Gray, how's that for a Gary-Stu name for you? It used to be Aiden, but then I realized how overused it is, so I started thinking, and then I developed a fascination for Matthew Gray Gubler. My mother constantly compares me to him, because we're both extremely quirky, my family swears that we were twins separated by birth because of the way that we act and our mannerisms...and the fact that we don't make sense when we speak - and neither of us wear matching socks. So anyway, I stole it from him, and I decided to spell Gray with an 'A' because my mother's maiden name is Andersen (Which is why I picked Aiden in the first place)

And finally, my last name will be Curry, because that was my first name when I was born. I'm not fond of it, but I am happy to have the same last name as Tim Curry, and besides that, that name was the first thing that anyone gave me. I decided to ditch my last name, because it's the name belonging to the side of the family that more or less disowned me and now constantly mocks me for my transition. I'll be damned if I have their last name on my tomb-stone. Screw that.

...Long answer.

Mine's pretty simple.  When I was about ten I asked my dad out of curiosity what name my parents had picked for me if I'd been born a boy.  He said 'Marcus'.  I've never forgotten that so when I discovered who I really was, I decided on that for at least part of my name.

Quote from: Jamiep on November 01, 2012, 01:42:06 PM
Mine was easy, my born male name is James, throughout my life some people called me a derivative as Jamie, so it was a natural not to far off my real name, easy to remember and as a girl go by Jamie.

Jamie

I thought James was unisex. Although I know its more commonly male, so I can understand why you changed it.

@Lady Autumn,

Seeing you mention James as being unisex, I googled and I do see some links as being that or gender neutral. First time knowing this. Having James with me all of my 71 years it is male to me & 10 years ago starting in a cd club I was asked what female name did I want to go by, it just came out Jamie.

Jamie

I haven't had my name officially changed, but one day it will be Aiko. It's very similar to my original name and will hopefully be easy to learn for others... I found it by looking through a hoard of name web pages. The names from my own country didn't fit me at all - I guess the male names here seem too used or too filled with associations for me to use them as my own. Aiko is Japanese and means love and child. Somehow Japanese fits me, and my own language is very similar to Japanese.

Today I told about my name to one friend and they thought that it fits me. That made me happy. My old name seems to be exactly that - it's growing old.

My  name is actually, well, I dunno if you'd call it silly.
I'm an artistic person, and of course I had my own characters and whatnot. One of them was Jaymes, and he was always a replacement for me in my art. I drew what I wanted to be. A male me, one that was happy.
The intentional 'misspelling' just was a bit of a throwback to my birth name, even if I'd transition, I'd still have an oddly spelt name. I'm so used to spelling out my name for clarification.
I'd chosen this name back in junior high and I've never regretted it, it's just me now.
And my middle name, Nicholas, was a masculinization of my birth name. I figure gotta respect some of my parents choices, besides, sounds nice.
So Jaymes Nicholas it was.

I personally think that coming up with your new name is the most spiritual part of changing gender. Even if your new name is just a variation, or even just a different spelling of your old one. I was personally terrified of picking a name that seemed to extrodianry in case people caught me out from that. (I hope that makes sense.) But you need a name that feels right when you say it and something that feels right In your heart... I guess I've been living in Glastonbury too long.

~Autumn Clara Moritz~

Earlier  this year I changed my name to "Arawn" on forums because it just instantly felt right to me.  However, the pronunciation is difficult and everyone would just pronounce it "Aaron" so I decided on Aaron Gabriel instead.  Gabriel has always been a name I've been close with for no apparent reason so it's there as my middle name.

-shrug-  I just feel more at home with the name of Aaron Gabriel and feel much more comfortable though it will be a long time before I get to use it in real life.

I chose a name that I've always particularly liked, but I kept the same initials and syllables in each name, first middle last. I am not too particular in people finding out who I used to be--I am generally very open to the fact that I'm trans and I do not have a job riding on my gender so to speak.