like for example an MTF going from Paul to Paula, Jesse to Jessica
FTM going from - Natalie to Nate, Samantha to Sam
It may be quite fortunate because people around you only have to adjust a little as the name will be close to your birth name unlike a complete change.

Or are there any trans people here who were lucky to be born with a unisex name and did not have to change it. If you had a unisex name but still decided to change, I would be curious to know why.( No need to say the birth name)).

I know someone who was called Jamie (FTM) and did not have to change their name, I thought he was so  lucky.

Yes, I suppose I am one of those lucky persons, though I am not particularly fond of it . Seeing that my SRS is still pretty far ahead, I cannot get my legal name changed at the moment - it can happen only after SRS (yes, we have stupid laws here - unless I would be feeling adventurous and decide to challenge the constitutionality of that provision before our court...).

Well, I am really torn between Emma and Emily. Both are close to my male name, with Emily being closer, but I sort of like Emma a bit more . Maybe I could be Emma Emily, although that sounds just ... meh..

Yes I have one. Christopher is very close to Christine and I can keep my nick name of Chris.

I won't legally change my name until I start and move far enough along with HRT to present as female. I think that if I start early next year that I can do that by that by early 2015.

I don't know if I'd call it lucky though. A lot of people here talk about wanting to change their name to something completely different while their family wishes them to keep their birth name.

I adopted my feminine name about age 4 and I chose it because I thought it was pretty. There were variants on by legal name but I didn't like any of them and wanted something completely different.

I have never liked "feminized male names" and if I had children I would NEVER have called my girls by such a name. Personal preference. There are way too many pretty feminine names to go with a variation on a male name.

I have one but would never use it - now that I have a chance to pick I'm picking something I've always liked.  A short variance in your name isn't going to make anything more comfortable for anyone else I don't think.  The only example I can think of is the example given above - Chris to Christine is still Chris on the short.  I'm sure there are others but, if you've found yourself not so lucky go with something you already like.  To me it wasn't even a choice - to me it's been Terri for as long as I can remember.

I was not lucky enough to be born with a unisex name, or one that could be changed over easily My old name was Duran, inspired by the old word "durant" and also by the band Duran Duran. :/
and it is pronounced "Duran". not "Derin" or "Durrin" hahaha people messed that up so bad before my transition.

So i browsed through baby girl names and found Accalia. that is my name I identified with it immediately, and now it is legally changed so happy! by the way....it is pronounced with a soft C sound, making "ah-SAY-leah" rather than "ackalia" or the like.

Pronunciation has got to be the most difficult thing in names whew haha

I will say this: Being able to go by a gender neutral nickname is invaluable during the 'in-between' stage of transition. No matter what gender folks think I am, my name won't break that illusion.

I decided to change for one simple reason: Separation. Much better to have a new name associated with the new me.

My male name has a female variant, but unfortunately i have a female family member with that name so using it was out of the question. Since that was the case I decided to go with a completely different girl name to make a clean delineation between myself as a boy and myself as a girl.

To be honest, even if my name had a female variant, I wouldn't have wanted it.

No

Thank all you for your input , interesting answers.

QuoteBeing able to go by a gender neutral nickname is invaluable during the 'in-between' stage of transition.

Ditto, at that stage it can really be an advantage.

The full spelling of my name, No.  The short spelling of it yes by adding two letters to the end.

However, there is no way (in that proverbial way) that I would have ever considered using any variation of my given name.

My birth name did not translate very well to a male version. But I wouldn't say that I was "unlucky" for it.

Quite frankly I was getting sick of being called by it and welcomed a chance to change it to something completely different. But I suppose since I don't have a lot of family/friends/acquaintances and didn't work at the time that I transitioned, people weren't a concern.

Having a name that doesn't transfer well is also a good "excuse" to change it to something that you like more- so hey, I won out there.

I can't say that it's lucky since I really hate the female variant of it. That and everybody is expecting me to use it, but I don't plan on it. I do have a name that I like, but I'm not about to start using it until I really start to transition.

I suppose my birth name had something like that. Not a literal variation, but a close enough sound to a somewhat common male name. I didn't like it for me, however. I did make sure my new name shared the same initial as the old though. I just wouldn't have felt right without it.

It's only lucky to have a ready made opposite gender version of your brith name if it's one you like. Like Shodan pointed out, it can get annoying when people keep bringing it up as an expected choice.

My name is anyway exotic and undecipherable for people except Koreans. Recently I booked airplane tickets and hotel abroad. They attached 'Ms.' before my surname. I did not request it, but they seemed to do that based on my photo in the passport, although my passport clearly states 'M' in the sex column. I am not quite sure whether I should correct it when getting the boarding pass.

barbie~~

I had one of those names (one of the ones included in the original post, in fact), but I chose not to use it. I went with what female name would have been given to me at birth, instead -- though if I didn't like it, I probably wouldn't have used it. Some times I question if my decision to use my would-be birth name is still meaningful in that light, haha.

Yeah I have a very male sounding name with a very female sounding female variant by adding one letter a Y or an "ie." A lot of people call me by the femalized version without asking and it used to really annoy me since they were essentially saying they don't see me as very male when I was trying to be. I am thinking about just changing my name to it as it would be much easier. With the male one on my BC it couldn't be mistaken for female.

No my name was Greek and Jewish.

I have an androgynous name, luckily. I'm well known in my professional life so I decided to keep my first name and adopt a feminine spelling. The nice side-effect of this is that it won't be so hard for family and friends to learn how to properly address me-- pronouns are hard enough it seems...

I told my parents my plan regarding my first name. When I visit them next time I'm going to ask them to give me a new middle name. I think that's a nice way of honoring them and making them a part of the journey.