I have one of those last names the other kids always made fun of in school, so I'm going to change it to be the same as my SO, who also more or less gave me my first name. I'll probably keep my male first name as a middle name, or maybe feminize it which is easy to do. Maybe I'll just keep them all and have one grand long name! 

I originally intended my first name to start with K like my male name did so my initials would stay the same but I really liked Margaret so after a few months, I decided that was it. I kept the Kay as my middle name. I use that as my business name to clients who know me before I transitioned. 

Ironically my previous initials were M.A.N.

I changed the lot, first, middle and surname.

Rebecca

Ok,  I'm not really boring at all either.  ;-)

Beni

I'm just going to add an "a" onto the end of my first name, but change my middle name, and of course I'm going to keep my last name (I'll only change that if I ever get married again    ).  Basically change from Shawn Christopher ------> Shawna Cynthia.  I know it's not very creative.

My middle name is Ashley, I was going to change it because I wanted to get rid of all vestages of my male identity but I ended up keeping it. My little sister named her daughter Ashley after me and she threatened me with death if I changed it, lol.

I kept my name just as it was, Michael Beverly, but go by Beverly.  Someday I might change it to Beverly Michael



Bev

I feminized my middle name and used it as my first name, and am using my mothers middle name as my middle name.


Paula Denise.

I kept my middle initial only but scrapped the name.  It's my mother's name and it felt very, very strange to be erasing her from my identity. I spoke to her about it, she said she didn't care, but I couldn't get over it. 

I'm changing both my first and middle names, My surname will remain the same

I've thought about the name thing a lot and ultimately I'm going to keep the first few letters of each so it still feels authentic.

I am having my own unique name, Janet Merai Aila :3

I created that name long ago as my female mental identity and plan to pursue that identity

My real first name could be feminized, I may do that, I may not. I am not sure if I want to erase my past or not, since I do love my first name, it sounds feminized already except the ending.

Paulina/Paul is not my real first name.

Im still considering name a little, same boat Paulina is in actually, im unsure if i want to use a new name, or feminize my current name, Emery into Emily, i like how it sounds! But im still thinking just incase I find that perfect name from the heart

My surname - which I kept - is actually a diminutive of a female Christian name.  It got me teased a bit at school and since it sounds as if it might be a nickname based on a shortening of my "real" surname, many people have assumed it was a nickname and so have adopted it from each other. After a while, I gave up trying to stem the tide and the end result is that I've been called and known just by that female-sounding name by most people throughout my life.

- which is quite ironic considering that I was hiding being transgendered for 50+ years.

When I began transition and did change my name, I feminised my forename to Stephanie and chose a middle name that kept my initials the same.
I figured that Steve to Stef wasn't such a hard jump for my family and friends.

Quote from: Rae09 on April 05, 2009, 08:35:13 PM
Hey all
Was just sitting around wondering if any of you folks out there kept or are keeping either your first or middle birth name? or even the whole thing?  just curious because I'm keeping my name that I've always gone by (my middle name), and i didn't know if I was the only one....

No, I changed it all. I didn't want any conection with someone saying 'oh  are you related to'. I prefered a clean sweep.

Surname yeah but not first or middle.

I have an aversion to "feminized" names LOL! (But that's my hang-up!) I wouldn't do that to my kids so I sure wouldn't do it to me either. There are SO MANY beautiful names for girls, why pick a "feminized name"?

Fortunately I found my real name at age 5 and it has been with me ever since (OMG that's 54 years! LOL!). For the legal change of name, I have 3 given names and they are all feminine names. If I had known I was going to be disowned, I would have changed my  surname as well and gone with something more typical of my ancestry.

Quote from: Northern Jane on April 18, 2009, 06:32:03 AM
I have an aversion to "feminized" names LOL! (But that's my hang-up!) I wouldn't do that to my kids so I sure wouldn't do it to me either. There are SO MANY beautiful names for girls, why pick a "feminized name"?

Fortunately I found my real name at age 5 and it has been with me ever since (OMG that's 54 years! LOL!). For the legal change of name, I have 3 given names and they are all feminine names. If I had known I was going to be disowned, I would have changed my  surname as well and gone with something more typical of my ancestry.

...and I've noticed some who go for overtly modern feminine names which wouldn't have been around when they were born.

I changed both my first and middle names. I kept my last name the same. I briefly considered changing it, to cover my past in case I switched jobs etc., but I didn't want my kids to feel as if I were abandoning them any more than they were already struggling with.

There are benefits to keeping the same initials if you can (in the space of time when you start transition but before you get legal docs changed).

I used one name 10-12 years ago ("Sarah") when I first contemplated transition. That name didn't feel right this time, and "Jennifer" just popped into my head as my name. (Note: I kept Sarah as my middle name.) My male name was similar -- just a softer more winsome name in tone -- and I just knew this was my name.

I had someone say "Why on earth did you change from the most popular male name from your age group to one of the most popular female ones when you could have picked anything?" Well...... I just knew my name.