When I started posting here I was considering using the name Rebecca.  But after a bit I realized it wasn't me. When I came out I came out as Sofia.  My friends and family now call me Sofie.  I went through a brief period where I considered several other names. But Sofie feels like me.

I will keep my name which is in my home language. It sounds somewhat soft in English, which I am happy with.

My name ended up being chosen for me as much as I chose it.  It was just too awkward being "A Girl with No Name." (Game of Thrones reference)

It was on the shortlist, along with many biblical names such as Hannah, Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary/Marie.  The common thread was women who had been incorrectly diagnosed as infertile.

Freya had the advantage of being the name of the Goddess of fertility, sharing the first two letters of my grandfather's name who I was named after, being the name of a pioneering British explorer of the Middle East, and being a name that was declining in popularity in 1964, but was still pretty common.

I'm still deciding on changing my name. My name is gender neutral and I actually know more males with it then females, so technically I wouldn't have to change it. On the other hand changing it would provide the distinction between old me and new me. If I do change it, it will be Bradley James. If I had been a boy I would have have been Braden James. I like Bradley better than Braden, and James was my dad's middle name.

I love my new name. 

I feel like I've told this story before. I'm sorry if I'm repeating myself.

The name I use here, and everywhere else I am on-line, is not my new name. I thought it might be, in the beginning; but it didn't stick. I changed all three of my names: first, middle and last. I've always disliked all of them intensely (a lady isn't supposed to say "hate," lol).

My first name is somewhat exotic. I ran into it many years ago in an obscure novel and fell in love with it. I had always planned to bestow it upon a daughter; but, since I ended up not having one, I took it for myself.

My middle name is a variation on another fictional character, this one from television. When I first embraced the fact that I would rather have been born female, years before realizing I was transgender, I asked myself, if I could be a woman, what woman would I want to be? And I didn't even have to think; I knew. She sprang into my brain instantly, and I was in outer space. It was my first experience of gender euphoria, and I was high for days. This fictional character is me; she is so much me that when I look at her photograph it's like looking in a mirror. She expresses all the repressed qualities in me. If I were undamaged and uninhibited, I would be she.

My last name is very common; I did that intentionally. What I did not realize, however, is how my names express who I am, like a Russian matryoshka doll. My last name is understated, which is the image I present to the world. My middle name, which is the one I go by, is the me you get to know if we are acquainted. My first name, which I do not use socially, is the inner me, the wild, expressive, unmasked me. As I say, I didn't plan it that way, but it works out just so.

I'm glad this topic came up. I got my new driver's license today (Sex: F!), and I'm very happy. 

I had a lesbian friend at work that helped me come up with Chelsea. She was the only one that I felt comfortable with talking about it at the time. It is very close to my male name (Charles) so I get to keep my initials also. It feels right to me.