I think you should go with Legolas too 

My parents always knew/thought they were going to have a girl; so no help there.  Not like my dad was supportive anyhow; so I sympathise about your mum

I did come up with some ridiculous more masculine female names before I knew I was trans. Sky was top of my list. So was Georgina as that was my middle name and I secretly wished my dad had got his way as that would have been my first name instead. Now I thank God I was never called Georgie or George 

Quote from: transguymac on June 26, 2017, 04:57:03 PM
Ha! You're all good!I don't think Leggolas was a very popular name my birth year! 

That's such a cute story thought!!!!!  Your sister's the real MVP!

Probably not but its an iconic name. still love it tho. I love LOTR. (Fan)

She is super awesome  some much spunk love her to bits. Took her cat to the Vet today he had such a nasty fight with a neighbors cat so I felt to bad. Remembering her always being there for me and giving me crap for my ->-bleeped-<-ty beahviour
and thought i m gonna help her out. The cat is better after a shot of anti-b he is a-okay. ^=^

Quote from: Elis on June 26, 2017, 05:09:07 PM
I think you should go with Legolas too 

My parents always knew/thought they were going to have a girl; so no help there.  Not like my dad was supportive anyhow; so I sympathise about your mum

I did come up with some ridiculous more masculine female names before I knew I was trans. Sky was top of my list. So was Georgina as that was my middle name and I secretly wished my dad had got his way as that would have been my first name instead. Now I thank God I was never called Georgie or George 

Great minds think alike "-"

I think that sky is super pretty , pretty androgynous but super cool.
  Georgie is pretty lol ?...... Evil giggles :-D

Quote from: transguymac on June 26, 2017, 04:11:00 PM
Did you get any cooky suggestions from friends and family members of just god awful names you'd rather stay your birth gender than to adapt???

My wife was full of wacky suggestions.  Fortunately, none of them were memorable.  Or maybe I've just repressed the memoriy.    Her favourite one was Lula.  Ugh!

I remember when I was a kid asking my mom watch she would have named me if I was a girl I dont remember what she would have named me she passed away when I was 8 so I cant reask. I am very emotional about my name so I picked some thing similar to my real name as close as I could get.

This is a really good topic. I worried back and forth a lot before picking mine. I originally didn't want something that ended in a vowel, as I thought it'd make me look like I was trying to be "hyper-feminine" or something. That being said, I looked through online databases of names and their meanings, picked ones that I liked the look/sound of, and researched their meaning. I was always proud of the meaning of my old, boy name, and thought I'd want to be proud of the new meaning too.

I ended up picking Alia based on a character from the Dune books by Frank Herbert. I liked the character, and her story is one of inner turmoil. She struggles with many things too complicated to waste all your time on, but her struggle mirrored mine in some ways.

The clincher was the meaning of the name: Lofty. By coming out, by taking this journey to finally be myself, and by changing my name, I started to rise above the struggles that had come before. I thought it fitting. :-) Now it's my name on all but one identifying document (which will be fixed as soon as I can bring a notary to my new Endo!)

~Alia

I have no idea where Sarah came from. I only know I've been using it for my video game characters forever. Once or twice for tabletop rpg characters. Maybe subconciously I've always known that should have been my name from the start!

My mom chose Abigail Elizabeth based on what my name would have been had I been born female. All these years later, it feels like that's my birth name xD and I know it makes my mom happy that she got to choose.

Choosing a name is kind of a battle. However, I didn't stress too much about it. Even before coming out my girlfriend would jokingly call me, "Vince" or "Vinny" so I kind of kept that name. I very much like the name, despite what my mother thinks.

I love reading all these stories! It's really cool to see how everyone chose their names.

Quote from: transguymac on June 26, 2017, 04:11:00 PM
IN OTHER NEWS...HELP.

My mother is trying to name me and it's hilarious!
Never in my life did I think I would be happy to be born biologically female, but she never even CHOSE boy names..........
Now she's trying to name me crazy things like

Kevin Jr (My dad's name is Kevin)
Wade (Per her deadpool obsession)
Leggolas
Wendall (A male version of her name)
Manchester Worthington Curvin III (because it "makes me sound like I come from money"... WHAT?? NO ONE IN MY FAMILY HAS THIS NAME...HOW CAN I BE THE 3RD?)

I'd much rather have her be accepting and annoying than un-accepting and rude....But.....WHY?? 


This is also the same woman who responded to, "What would you say if I told you I want to be man?" with "I'd say you're a waffle." (Which is currently my gender to my mother, I am a waffle...and I'm not even mad...she's a goofball.)


SO here goes on to the next segment:

Did you choose any ridiculous names before you decided on the one you're currently going by or anticipating going by?
Did you get any cooky suggestions from friends and family members of just god awful names you'd rather stay your birth gender than to adapt???

Manchester Worthington Curvin III... because it makes you sound like you come from money LOLOL. I also love the waffle response. Your mom sounds awesome. Also, I'd like to say that "Steven Lee" really does suit you.

No one's ever suggested names to me. I tried asking my mom if she had any male names picked out in case I'd been born a boy, but...

Quote from: Elis
My parents always knew/thought they were going to have a girl; so no help there.

I got a response like that. She said, "No, I knew I was going to have a girl." When I asked how, she said, "I just knew." No help there. It's nice to hear someone else's parent(s) have responded in that way. I suppose some people do have those feelings about the kids they're going to have, but it seems oddly deterministic to me.

The name "Seth" has been with me for a while. It started almost ten years ago as the name of a character in a story I was writing, back before I realized I was trans (I didn't realize how long it'd been until I thought about it... wow). This character evolved and became one I identified with more and more. By the time I realized I was trans this year, he was nearly identical to me aside from appearances--same personality, similar history. At first I didn't want to take the name for myself because I'd always pictured the character as tall, and I'm... well, not, but then I realized it was silly to not take the name for that reason, and that honestly, the name had sort of been mine for a long time already.

I have yet to tell anyone IRL what my name is. It feels oddly personal, probably because I've been holding onto it for so long without mentioning it to anyone, and didn't talk about my gender identity questioning with much anyone either. I definitely will be telling most everyone before I tell my mother, because I imagine she won't react well to the fact that I plan to change my name. I still haven't worked out how to tell her I will be driving five hours away for an informed consent appointment for HRT in just a couple weeks. (Never driven that far on my own, and haven't talked about HRT with her yet. Not looking forward to this conversation, haha.)

My mother was going to push to be called "Hank" if i was born male. I would've been made fun so much in school. Hank is such a gay name..
  Anyway how I've been choosing is i narrowed a few names that were phonetically similar to my birth name (Claire) and  ended up with Clay in the end, since Clay is a popular name around where I live and I connect with that name on a pretty deep level (the meaning)
  however I recently learned Clay isn't a common name anywhere else, as when i tell people my name they go "Clay? Wow I've never heard that one before!"
  So my parents suggested Matt, which is similar to one of my middle names. So Now I have a dilemma. I've already introduced myself as Clay to quite a few people, and I don't like the full "Matthew" but Clay is a very uncommon name so it'd be wise to be called something like Matt.
Either way, I've got two very nice names and I'll figure it out eventually I hope.

Quote from: KellyBear on June 26, 2017, 05:17:00 PM
Great minds think alike "-"

I think that sky is super pretty , pretty androgynous but super cool.
  Georgie is pretty lol ?...... Evil giggles :-D

Sky is a really good androgynous name! I've known FTMs and CIS-females who go by Sky...Short of Skyler.
Ash is too! Because it stand for Ashton, Asher, Ashlyn, Ashley, ETC.

You could always go with Georgette??? That's what I named my Gerbil George when I found out he was a she.... xD;

Quote from: KathyLauren on June 26, 2017, 06:44:32 PM
My wife was full of wacky suggestions.  Fortunately, none of them were memorable.  Or maybe I've just repressed the memoriy.    Her favourite one was Lula.  Ugh!

I kind of Lula!!! Sounds like Luna which is you know....relating to the moon.

Quote from: natalie.ashlyne on June 26, 2017, 06:49:20 PM
I remember when I was a kid asking my mom watch she would have named me if I was a girl I dont remember what she would have named me she passed away when I was 8 so I cant reask. I am very emotional about my name so I picked some thing similar to my real name as close as I could get.

Awwww. I'm very sorry for your loss, and that you can't re-ask. As a sentimental person I can definitely stand by people who choose to pick names close to their birth / dead names. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

Quote from: SaintAlia on June 26, 2017, 07:51:01 PM
This is a really good topic. I worried back and forth a lot before picking mine. I originally didn't want something that ended in a vowel, as I thought it'd make me look like I was trying to be "hyper-feminine" or something. That being said, I looked through online databases of names and their meanings, picked ones that I liked the look/sound of, and researched their meaning. I was always proud of the meaning of my old, boy name, and thought I'd want to be proud of the new meaning too.

I ended up picking Alia based on a character from the Dune books by Frank Herbert. I liked the character, and her story is one of inner turmoil. She struggles with many things too complicated to waste all your time on, but her struggle mirrored mine in some ways.

The clincher was the meaning of the name: Lofty. By coming out, by taking this journey to finally be myself, and by changing my name, I started to rise above the struggles that had come before. I thought it fitting. :-) Now it's my name on all but one identifying document (which will be fixed as soon as I can bring a notary to my new Endo!)

~Alia

BOOM! There it is!! I think name meanings are actually really important....Even if I never fully identified with my birth name meaning...
I was told by my mother that Melanie meant Dark and Courtney meant leader...I mean, I'm a pretty dark person and a good leader, but Dark Leader just made me feel like a sith lord.

I picked Steven after Steve Rogers, because I'm nerd trash and really just loved the way it sounded, and I picked Lee, because my original birth name was supposed to be Melanie Lee, after my mom's two best friends when I was born, though Lee was going to feminized to Leigh.

The name I have now doesn't really have any significant meaning behind it, but I'm okay with that. I do love hearing people's stories about choosing and meanings so thank's so much for sharing Alia!!

Quote from: Sarah_P on June 26, 2017, 08:00:20 PM
I have no idea where Sarah came from. I only know I've been using it for my video game characters forever. Once or twice for tabletop rpg characters. Maybe subconciously I've always known that should have been my name from the start!

I've heard this kind of thing from a lot of people recently and it's so fascinating! I'm glad that it really comes so easily for some of us! <3

Quote from: yayo on June 26, 2017, 08:04:49 PM
My mom chose Abigail Elizabeth based on what my name would have been had I been born female. All these years later, it feels like that's my birth name xD and I know it makes my mom happy that she got to choose.

Those are so pretty and sound so nice together. ;w; I'm really glad your mom got to help as well. I was really exciting when my mom wanted to help, and while I know that she's just a jokster, it kind of made me sad that she didn't really have any serious suggestions.......
Those I think Wade, after Deadpool, was actually serious and that makes me happy that my mom wasn't really into nerdy things when I was born or lord knows what the name would have been.

Quote from: Vincent Johnson on July 02, 2017, 05:44:27 AM
Choosing a name is kind of a battle. However, I didn't stress too much about it. Even before coming out my girlfriend would jokingly call me, "Vince" or "Vinny" so I kind of kept that name. I very much like the name, despite what my mother thinks.

I like it too! It's not very common, but it's also not totally out there!
I know a guy named Sebastian Maxwell, and I thought it was so out there at first, but he informed me he has actually met several other FTM's with that name.

Vinny sounds like a bad ass mob boss, and Vince sounds super classy and rich.

Quote from: seth.james on July 02, 2017, 02:25:37 PM
I love reading all these stories! It's really cool to see how everyone chose their names.
Manchester Worthington Curvin III... because it makes you sound like you come from money LOLOL. I also love the waffle response. Your mom sounds awesome. Also, I'd like to say that "Steven Lee" really does suit you.

No one's ever suggested names to me. I tried asking my mom if she had any male names picked out in case I'd been born a boy, but...
I got a response like that. She said, "No, I knew I was going to have a girl." When I asked how, she said, "I just knew." No help there. It's nice to hear someone else's parent(s) have responded in that way. I suppose some people do have those feelings about the kids they're going to have, but it seems oddly deterministic to me.

The name "Seth" has been with me for a while. It started almost ten years ago as the name of a character in a story I was writing, back before I realized I was trans (I didn't realize how long it'd been until I thought about it... wow). This character evolved and became one I identified with more and more. By the time I realized I was trans this year, he was nearly identical to me aside from appearances--same personality, similar history. At first I didn't want to take the name for myself because I'd always pictured the character as tall, and I'm... well, not, but then I realized it was silly to not take the name for that reason, and that honestly, the name had sort of been mine for a long time already.

I have yet to tell anyone IRL what my name is. It feels oddly personal, probably because I've been holding onto it for so long without mentioning it to anyone, and didn't talk about my gender identity questioning with much anyone either. I definitely will be telling most everyone before I tell my mother, because I imagine she won't react well to the fact that I plan to change my name. I still haven't worked out how to tell her I will be driving five hours away for an informed consent appointment for HRT in just a couple weeks. (Never driven that far on my own, and haven't talked about HRT with her yet. Not looking forward to this conversation, haha.)

I know right? They're such good stories. T___T

And yeah...I'm okay with my gender being waffle...I do love waffles. She said when the doctor asked her if she wanted a boy or a girl she said both....Careful what you wish for mom!!!!  But I feel your struggle, my mom knew she was having a girl so she didn't pick out any boy names either. I wasn't surprised, but I was still kinda bummed when I found out. (But I was almost an abortion as well, so beggars can't be choosers. BUT THAT'S A STORY FOR ANOTHER DAY!)

She really is awesome though! She's hands down my best friend, and if I'd have been anyone else and didn't have such a good sense of humor I'd probably be pretty offended with all the joking she did when I came out to her, but that's how we deal with uncomfortable situations, and we both have really messed up senses of humor. I was actually crying over what a good reaction she had and what a good mom she is and she told me, "Quit being such a little b****."

I like the name Seth a lot, it's kind of a fun name, and based on your posts I've seen around the forum I think it suits you!

That's quite a drive but I hope it goes VERY well for you, and I hope that your name and HRT conversations with your mom goes really well! I'll definitely keep you in my thoughts! -fingers crossed-

Quote from: undautri on July 02, 2017, 03:52:12 PM
My mother was going to push to be called "Hank" if i was born male. I would've been made fun so much in school. Hank is such a gay name..
  Anyway how I've been choosing is i narrowed a few names that were phonetically similar to my birth name (Claire) and  ended up with Clay in the end, since Clay is a popular name around where I live and I connect with that name on a pretty deep level (the meaning)
  however I recently learned Clay isn't a common name anywhere else, as when i tell people my name they go "Clay? Wow I've never heard that one before!"
  So my parents suggested Matt, which is similar to one of my middle names. So Now I have a dilemma. I've already introduced myself as Clay to quite a few people, and I don't like the full "Matthew" but Clay is a very uncommon name so it'd be wise to be called something like Matt.
Either way, I've got two very nice names and I'll figure it out eventually I hope.

 

I'M SO SORRY. I COULDN'T RESIST!!!! XD;;;

Matthew is  SUPER common name. At least in US. I actually really like Clay and I don't think it's all that uncommon. I think you should go with what feel right in your gut!
Second best is choosing initials that give you a super cool 3-letter, nick name...Which is what I ALMOST did.

#CLAYFORUNDAUTRI2K17

I'm a gamer, and I've known from a young age that I wanted to change my name. I spent my childhood and teenage years trying out a bunch of different names on various MMOs and RPG forums. My main criteria were that it had to be short, common, and easy to spell and pronounce, because my last name is none of those things and has made my life hell.

Because I'm agender, I originally wanted something gender neutral. But none of the names I tried over the years really ended up resonating with me. The one that finally did is more traditionally male, and was chosen purely as for its resemblance to my screen name in that particular MMO rather than as a serious attempt at finding my real name. But from the moment I started using it, it fit in a way that nothing else has. I even accidentally answered to it in public a few times before I started using it with meatspace acquaintances.

I'm not crazy about the genderedness, but after 15+ years of attempts, I figure that's as good as I'm going to get. I did choose a gender neutral middle name as a backup plan just in case I should ever start feeling dysphoria for being too masculine instead of too feminine.

Quote from: transguymac on July 02, 2017, 11:53:27 PM
 

#CLAYFORUNDAUTRI2K17

10/10 reference. My last name also begins with a H and it would end up...very close.
  So it's decided, I'm sticking with Clay.
  Thanks Mac!

I'm a mama's boy, so I would go with the name she would have picked had I been born male. That name is nowhere near my birth name, which is fine because people hardly call me by my birth name anyway.

The name I go by now is not indicative of gender, so I guess I could use that one too, but... yeah, probably not.

I was searching for a name that was somewhat unique, but also wasn't strange for someone my age. I decided on Hayley, one because of the singer from Paramore, and two, it means "hero"

Quote from: HayleyVera on July 04, 2017, 12:48:39 AM
I was searching for a name that was somewhat unique, but also wasn't strange for someone my age. I decided on Hayley, one because of the singer from Paramore, and two, it means "hero"

Doesn't it actually mean heroine  . Btw; that's a really pretty name; good choice