So for a few months my bf and I have been kicking around names for him. He has a very fem name that can't be altered to make it work. We are running into issues because, as an adult, most the names we know we have associated people associated with them. This isn't an issue when you don't pick your own name. Also, names seem to be trendy by decade. It would less common ( standoutish) for a 15 year old to be named Dale or something like that. So we would like to find a name common in his age group, 30s. Anyway how did yo decide?

You can check out the most popular birth names for the year your boyfriend was born in.  In the late 1970s, the top five most popular boy names were Michael, Jason, Christopher, David, and James. 

If he was born in the United States, you can go to the social security website (google popular names by state) and search by state and year.  It will give you the top 100 names for that state/year.

I picked my name because it was the masculine version of my first name.  I chose a middle name that I liked and went smoothly.  My last name is my grandma's maiden name.  My former last name was English, but because I'm actually Irish I wanted to honor that instead.

I haven't completely settled yet. I went through several mental names for myself when I was a little kid, mostly inspired by the sci-fi characters i identified with. I had Luke, Wesley, and Mike phases that I remember. There might have been more.

By the time I was a teenager, I'd decided I was going to stick with my original initials for a few reasons - I could keep my signature, and I also like having the same initials as my cousin. And I can transition my online identity more gradually that way.

I settled on my grandfather's name (conveniently the right initial) for my middle name, which unfortunately means sharing that with my cousin, but it's just a middle name. The first has been harder - there are only a couple of names I like that start with A. When I was 14 or so and interacting online, I was Alan, but since I re-acknowledged my identity I've preferred Alex/Alexander.

I'm not at all worried about sharing a name with other people though, even friends...hell, Alexander is my husband's middle name, and that's not even an issue for me. But all I'm really concerned about is that I have to like the name and I can't share it (as a first name) with living relatives.

I picked Leo cause it's a representation of who I am now. I don't really care if my name I pick is popular...only if it describes me. But in the end...it's just a name. I also thought about Skyler cause it means refuge, shelter, protector. If I use that it'll be a middle name. Idk. I'm big on the 'screw the typical, I'm gonna be out there'.

I had the same problem.  My name didnt really have a masculine counterpart.  It was Maggie.

I chose Elijah, for a few reasons, 1. i went online, posted my picture and asked people what my name should be, I got Elijah, and then I got a lot of people who agreed with that.
2. I love the name Elijah, it isnt too rare, but not too common, and it is a pretty name I think, and I am not an extremely masculine guy, so it fits.

I would suggest that you and your guy go to a name website, think about what letter he likes.. for me. I always loved names that started with E, hence Elijah.  Then just have fun looking through the names, and once you find some, test them out on him, call him by the names and see how each of you respond to it.

A tip... names will always feel a bit weird in the beginning, someone will call you by it... and it wont feel like its "you" you just have to get used to it... ever sense I switched to Elijah.. the name Maggie has completely disconnected to me, and its hard for me to respond to it.. its an interesting experience.

I choose tekla after the GF of my 'spiritual advisor' in High School, once it turned out she had much more insight than he did.

I've been called 'Kat' for a long time for several reasons, so I just used it as my middle name (when you're out and about, in a loud club and all that a simple single syllable name works better) so I looked at all the names that Kat could be short for and went with "Katrina" after Katrina Witt.

When the time comes for me to pick a name. . . I'll probably go with something that I think sounds cool and is relatively uncommon (but not too out there).

Not Aiden, Christopher, Matthew, etc. Hey, I get to name myself at some point. I may as well have a little fun with it.

All great advise.. . I think he wants to find a name the starts with an H since he's given name is an H name. He wants to keep the initials because they have been used to identify him in many great adventures in the past. We are kicking around the name Heath.

I wanted to keep my first and Middle initals because for the last 12 years, DJ has been who I am. But I chose Davis because I feel it reflects my personality. Goofy, laid back, deep thinker and all round good guy. Plus have never met a Davis. LoL. Heath sounds like a good name. If it matches the person go with it and see how it works.

Maybe will take it for a test run.

Heath is cool.

I could have used the masculine name of my female name, but it seemed too..predictable, boring of me to do that. Meh.

My stage name is Choker. But I've had that nickname online for a long time and it has a deeper meaning to me than just choking or being choked. That way if someone wants to be a prick like they seem to be lately, they can just call me choker, with no pronouns, and be done with it.

My birthday, Jessica, comes with the nick name Jessie and Jess which are both masc and fem names. However I didn't want that name although it would have made an easier transition. the way i chose my name is simply the name i always chose to use when i was a kid. I was always officer Mark, Dr. Mark, ANYTHING Mark. maybe you didnt do the same thing as a child but if i picked any other name idk if id ever be satisfied.

Mark

I heard it over 10 years ago, and just had to have it. Instant click. Then I got angry because I was living in the wrong gender for it (and as such, couldn't have it). So I used it mentally and online instead.

When it came time to pick a name, I really tried to run with a modified birth name but I just couldn't do it. Even though I found a derivative I liked, it just wouldn't fit.

So I seriously considered that name from way back then. It still fit, so I ran with it. It's a little unusual, but it's still more "well known" than my birth name .

I also did the childhood names thing. Apparently it's really common. Perhaps that could be a source of names? Was there a name he was really attached to in the past?

While a name is only a name, I thnk they are important for both your own enjoyment and first impressions.

Henliked Eric as a kid because his mom was gonna name him that is he was a boy. Also Evan. I really think he wants to keep those initials though. HH.... He was a profesional athlete and did some other things in the past where his initials were used a lot. He doesn't want to give them up.

It would be a dream if I could someday give my Mom some options or ask her opinion so she's a part of it like the first go 'round. She's always been such an amazing mother, I hate to disrespect her and take away the names she picked for me at birth because they obviously were special to her. Tough stuff. Maybe Heath Evan H-lastname. Don't know if that 'rings' right though.

Hard to tell without hearing the actual last name, but Heath Evan sounds good.

I took the favorite parts of my given name and found a masculine name with them present. It was a difficult search, not many names in general had what I was looking for but I found one that was perfect.

I'm also keeping my initials the same.

I liked my initials and the cadence of my name, but wanted something that sounded closer to my ethnic heritage, wasn't Biblical, and aesthetically approximated my gender identity - more "female" than "male," but still somewhat androgynous and not over-femme. Thus, I chose Anja (the J is essentially a Y). I've been decently happy with it, and I can't think of anything that would have fit much better.

i went through the general "maybe i'll be.....KADEN!" but it never really fit. thought about tyler, still not really and i wanted to keep my initials, so i think i've decided to just add a letter to my given name (which in a sense is pretty girly but i've heard of it being used for men) and go by a couple of nicknames. unfortunately one of the nicknames is pretty common among FTMs, but that doesn't bother me too much.

the male version of my given name just clicks with me. i don't LOVE it, which is fine, but i don't hate it. and it means pretty much the same thing. it's also androgynous but with a masculine spelling. sometimes i think maybe i should just......*rambles for 2 hours about names* 

When I set out to look for a name I didn't particularly care if it aligned in any way with my given name.  I wanted something that was unique but not strange.  I just kept searching through baby name websites until names would pop out at me.  I found "Gus"  I really like it, but everyone else hated it.  Why I wont go into here, but I kept looking.  Though I'm still in my best friends phone as "GusGus" and may at some point pick it up and use it as one of those odd nicknames people have that they picked up in the past type of things.

From there I realized I needed[/I guess wanted] to find a more full "formal" name.  I decided to narrow my search by looking at names from each of the 4 parts of my heritage.  By looking at "foreign" names it cut out a lot of common names I wouldn't have wanted anyway.  Then I went through and picked out the cool/interesting sounding ones.  I took that list and took out all the ones that were a bit too cool/interesting to fit me.  Came out with a short list and chose from there.

I ended up actually choosing a name [pretty much by accident] that could easily stem from my given name.  I chose a Celtic name, and actually a unisex name.  Most of them[celtic names] are really lovely.  I'd recommend looking into them.