I chose the name, Rain, when I was maybe 11 years old, when I glimpsed my future through the vessel of another. I kept it in my back pocket as a potential name or middle name if I ever had a daughter, but decided to take it for myself when my wife and I finally decided that we were not going to have children. I told my wife in mid-2016, I think, and started using it in social settings in October, 2016, then at work and everywhere else in January, 2017. Legally changed it in July, 2017. There are many reasons that I like Rain- it is fluid, calming, and reassuring for me. Being in the rain has always made me feel super grounded and connected to nature and myself. It's also an inside joke that I share with myself around my monthly infusions for my primary immune deficiency disease.
Lucien has always been my middle name. It was my mother's father's name, and he passed when my mother was very young. When I was young I absolutely hated it, but as I grew older, I also grew to love it and did not want to change it, so I didn't.