My chosen first name shares initials with my given first name. I didn't feel comfortable without it. I guess I was attached to the initial and nothing without it felt like 'me'. I'm curious how many others felt the same and whether some initials inspire more loyalty than others.

First name letters only please. If you were partial to the initial 'J' of your first name and wanted to incorporate it into your middle initial or something similar, please share in the comments. The poll only wants to know your birth (first) name initial and whether you chose a new first name with that initial (whether you see it as coincidence or not).

If you haven't changed your name yet, does the name you're going by share the same initial as your given name?
Please feel free to elaborate or share your name story in a reply.

My old name started with a K and my new name starts with a C. I went for K names originally, just because...I don't know, it seemed like the right thing to do for some reason. Lol. But I hated all the K names for guys. The ones I did like, I couldn't see myself as - like Kevin, Keith, or Karl. So I settled on a C name I liked.

I decided to use the same initial and really, just a little more feminine version that is still a bit unisex just to make it easier on everyone I already knew and my family. And I would have felt silly going with a fully feminine name suddenly. It worked out ok.

My old name started with "J". It is only by coincidence I named myself after a patient I lost one day and hers started with a "J" as well. Wanted to keep her alive somehow, I hope she approves.

Birth name started with a C, chosen name starts with a C.

And yeah, I basically did just pick a bunch of female versions of my birth name and picked the one I liked the most.

  My given first and second name start with the same letters as my chosen name, and the chosen first name sounds similar to my given first name, my last name will stay the same.Somewhere there was a plan but I forgot what it was !  Pat

I have went by names that started with F, D, and S, which would be a first name, middle name, and nickname; but as a woman my name starts with a V.

All the best names start with V. Just like all the best people are Scorpios.

My birth name starts with R and my chosen name starts with V, but I kept my birth name as a middle name.

Birth name starts with T, new name starts with J. Didn't like any names beginning with the letter T, so went with the first letter of my middle name, which was J.

Both start with 'G'.  Not a coincidence. (I'm a Gillian, BTW.)

My given name is James.  I got my nickname Jamie from the girls in kindergarten.  It still feels right.

Thank you Martha, Carol, and Kim! 

My birth name starts with an M. There is a very obvious female variant of that name and I considered using it for a short while and then remembered that I have a distant relative with that same name, so using that name was a non starter for me.

I looked a lists of female names but none of them felt right, so I finally just gave up. Then one morning at 6am while I was driving into work with a whole lot of nothing on my mind "Eva" popped up out of my subconscious. I turned it over in my mind and considered it for awhile, decided that it felt right, and adopted it.

Hi.

Birth names noel = no-el, edward mannfried Von Reutchthos,   Loch-head.

I use noeleena edwina Loch-head,   so the first letters are the same,

noel = no-el is both male and female and a few friends still use noel. And Jos allways will .

the name mannfried is german and Von Reutchthos  is Prussian , part of my background

in fact i was not going to change any names  till our Endo said .. well... what are we going to call you,  oh , i said not thought much about it  oh well noeleen  i spos so my records were changed then i went over to Phuket and one of the RN"s = nurse said no no no it has to be noeleena. the a is stressed as an arr or german 'e' so pretty much every one knows im noeleen'e' .

...noeleena...

Quote from: birkin on March 09, 2014, 07:49:24 PMMy old name started with a K and my new name starts with a C. I went for K names originally, just because...I don't know, it seemed like the right thing to do for some reason. Lol. But I hated all the K names for guys. The ones I did like, I couldn't see myself as - like Kevin, Keith, or Karl. So I settled on a C name I liked.

Could have been K-Leb

My birth names is very common and thus I don't mind revealing it.  John.

Prior to learning what I would have been named had I been born into the correct gender, I was using Jaime, so it would have kept the same letter, but now my chosen name starts with C, so it doesn't.

I ended up coming up with ny name as a feminine alter ego at social events, and it kind of stuck to say the least.

All I did was change one letter and "boy" to "girl"

My birth name starts with an E and my chosen with an A. The masculine spelling of my birthname (it's unisex) starts with an A.

But my husband chose my name so it was a funny coincidence

How should I respond if my name was changed earlier for a non-trans reason (I won't get into the details on the situation because of the drama involved) - do you want me to refer to the original birth name or the name after that change? (This is why I use the term "pre-transition" instead of "birth" name in my posts because there may be a few of us where the two aren't the same - unless you use the definition which determines how your name appears on your children's birth certificates, in which any change to your BC changes your birth name for that purpose.)

Quote from: tgchar21 on March 10, 2014, 08:26:42 AM
How should I respond if my name was changed earlier for a non-trans reason (I won't get into the details on the situation because of the drama involved) - do you want me to refer to the original birth name or the name after that change? (This is why I use the term "pre-transition" instead of "birth" name in my posts because there may be a few of us where the two aren't the same - unless you use the definition which determines how your name appears on your children's birth certificates, in which any change to your BC changes your birth name for that purpose.)

Well, I'm mostly working under the idea that we might somehow get attached to our birth name initial from an early age (I think I did). So, while by no means scientific, I'm trying to see whether that holds out among our little community here. And if so, which letters of the alphabet may inspire more attachment.
I just added an option for you and others whose name history is complicated.

I'd be interested to know whether your second name pre-transition had the same initial as your first and whether the second name's initial became the final one as well. 

Quote from: FA on March 10, 2014, 08:50:45 AM
Well, I'm mostly working under the idea that we might somehow get attached to our birth name initial from an early age (I think I did). So, while by no means scientific, I'm trying to see whether that holds out among our little community here. And if so, which letters of the alphabet may inspire more attachment.
I just added an option for you and others whose name history is complicated.

I'd be interested to know whether your second name pre-transition had the same initial as your first and whether the second name's initial became the final one as well. 

No, for me the initials aren't the same (hence why I asked). I'll choose that additional option for my response.

Another complication I thought of is where the legal name has one initial but the individual goes almost exclusively by a nickname with a different initial (e.g. I know a Patricia who basically goes by Tricia except on official documents).

In cases like mine what may matter for your question was when the non-trans name change happened - if it was for example done with an adoption as a child before he/she was old enough to know his/her name (and only learned about the prior name after the fact) vs. done as an adult on the individual's own prerogative. (Interestingly it's the former case which inspired my research on whether or not you need to tell an employer about a name changed before you had any records they'd check if asked for other names you've used - and unless it's for a security clearance or other anomalous case where they trace you back to birth, the answer is no. Since this is of relevance to many of us I've mentioned it several times on here.)