How do you choose a name? The name my parents chose for me does not have a masculine equivalent. I've heard of some people "knowing" their name as easily as their gender. But I have no idea what would fit me.

It's different for everyone. Some people have a name in mind that they already like. Others need to take time to figure it out. Some people also change their minds and pick out another name after already picking a new name once before. Just take your time and you'll figure it out eventually.

I went with a name that my parents would have given me if I had been born female. I happen to really like the name, so I stuck with it.

When it came time for me to choose a name i had a hard time deciding,
everything i thought of i did not really like, i tried using the female
name my mother would call me when she was upset with me but that
just reminded me of all the times my mom was mad at me so that wouldn't
work, in the end i finally took my initials from my first and last name
and put them together as a name, i know a few people name Kacey but
they all spell it with a C and i kinda liked the idea of keeping my initials
so i chose Kacey Lynne which will keep all of my original initials and I love
the way it sounds together

I somehow accidently came across the name Elis. A name that you like you may also accidently stumble across or you could get a baby book and just pick a name that way. Name's are hard, I think it's rare that you just fall in love with it immediately and it being as much of a confirmation as knowing your gender. You have to consider how people will abbreviate it, how well it fits your personality (whether you're very masc or fem or somewhere in the middle) and how common you want your new name to be. Which is why I chose Elis.

My name found me. Part of the reason I'm keeping my first name (a gender neutral nickname.  Sam, Danni, Jesse). Is because people would call me the longer female version of my name, and not to tease me. Long before I came out. Once a friends mother introduced me to her family this way.

When you find a name you think you like. Think of a situation where your name would be broadcasted out there to the world, good or bad. Do you cringe at the sound of your name or do you stand straight and smile. That's when you've found your name.

Take your time there is usually no rush. Most parents spend months planning their children's names. No reason why we shouldn't take the same care either.

On my first day at school, so many years ago a little 5 year old was asked his name. I replied Cindy.

Sort of stayed with me.

i don´t really like my birth name and so wanted one completely different from it.  i knew i wanted it to be short and easily pronounced and one that
i had no negative connections with.  It was a rather long process finding the right one and even now i sometimes have doubts, a middle aged trans
woman calling herself Linda is perhaps a bit conceited, but i am probably going to stick with it because all the Linda´s i have known have been
very sweet ladies, feminine and kind, just the way i want to be.

I keep turning names around in my head and nothing seems to click... My name turns out to actually have been a men's name in the past, so I've always got that aspect of it, but now it's a girl's name so I'm probably going to want to change it. I don't think a name is something that would come easily unless you've always had a name in mind though.

Names can be so easy, or they can be tough to find.  I think of it as a good problem.

I'm still mulling it about.  When I was a kid I lived Dawn.  It seemed perfect, but after first coming out, I began to dislike it.  So after going around, I settled on Catlin, which I still love.  It might be problematic since my niece's name is the same but spelled differently.  Even if I go by Cate, which I'm so stuck on, I don't to create any additional confusion for my other nieces.

So I keep mulling it over.   So far,  Cate is still my favorite, but I'm also considering Cassie, Courtney, Crescent, Charlotte, and Caren.  If you couldn't tell, I'm stick with my current initials.  In fact, my screen name is my initials, too.  C.G.  Happy accident.  I suppose if I lived in Indianapolis, I'd be IndyGirl.  If I was in Houston, I'd be HoGirl.  Thank goodness I'm not from Houston! [emoji13]

I kind of chose one out of the blue that I liked, asked people here. Then I stayed with it for a bit. But when I came out to my mom she suggested something else which sounded more appropriate given my national origin. I ran it by a friend who lives there and she agreed. So I'm going to go with that one.

I have my dad's first name as my middle name right now. I may take my mom's instead when I do my name change OR I was thinking even my grandma's.

I went to a list of androgynous names.
Currently I'm considering transition, but I won't need to change my name because I already changed it to a gender neutral name.  Both my first and middle name are neutral, though they each have spelling variants that are masculine and feminine.  I went with the masculine spelling for the first one and the feminine spelling for the second one.  However, as someone who identifies as non-binary even as a transwoman I'm completely fine with keeping the masculine style spelling of my name.

Look to a list of names.  Consider names of characters in books you love.

Mine was sort of like Cindy's. I had to write my name and I wrote Ken. It stuck.