I thought it would be fun if people discussed the name they chose for their prefered gender

For me its quite personal. Now, im gonna sound like a complete nutter lol. Basically I suffer from hallucinations and one of my "imagenary friends" is called Scott and ive come to realise he is everything I want to be and could be if I did transistion. He looks how I want to look, acts how I want to act and so I've decided I want that to be my name.

So please comment even if its quite a simple choice or something as wacky as mine

For the time being, I identify as an androgyne but I'm beginning to think that I might be more MtF.

So, I was thinking of a way to choose an androgynous name that would keep the meanings of my given names (David = beloved, William = Protector). I found many possibilities, but few I liked.

So, I began thinking of words that hold special meanings for me.

September (I was born and married in September)
Virgo (both my wife and I are Virgos, and were married during Virgo "season")
Willow, Cypress (trees near where my family had our first apartment)

My wife suggested a new first name of Dana. I then added Willow as the middle name. So, when I legally change my name (which I'll be doing in the next year or so), I will be Dana Willow M______. This way, I can keep my initials (DWM) and my email addresses, which are based on my initials.

I chose Rhiannon because, I've known a couple of Rhi's in my lifetime and both of them were upbeat, funny and sometimes downright wacky, their name fit them. I thought I represented those traits and I sorta look like a Rhiannon so I've stuck with it throughout the years.

I harvested this from an old bloger entry I made about this very subject. Moderatly edited to clarify.

My first name is Cynthia. To the distaste of some of my very close family. I find that it IS my name regardless of what I thought. Cynthia was the name I chose at about 5. This was my greatest secret. That I had a female identity. The name would leave my conscience for years then come back. Stronger each time. An aware mind can not sustain living a lie. My name is Cynthia. Cynthia was also the name of one of my first girlfriends. She was really the kind of chick I wanted to be at the time. Not the best choice of names I thought but it stuck. I looked up what Cynthia means recently and I am very pleased.....

From Wiki:

Cynthia is a feminine personal name of Greek origin: Κυνθία, Kynthía, "from Mount Cynthus" on Delos island. It can be abbreviated as Cindy.

Cynthia was originally an epithet of the Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis, who was sometimes called "Cynthia" because, according to legend, the goddess was born on Mount Cynthus.

From UrbanDictionary

Cynthia's are often shy people, but once your get to know a Cynthia they are one of the most loyal and friendly type of people you would ever be lucky enough to meet. Cynthia's love to talk but are often quiet to listen to their friend's problems. Cynthia's do not like sports, and are often too worried about life once but once you get to know a Cynthia you will see little by little that they let loose and have fun. Cynthia' s are often known by there sad looking eyes and that gloomy look on there face, often they have dark hair and a pale dead like face because they are after all named after the goddess of the moon, and like the moon you will soon see their pale beauty and mysterious personalty, know as the invisible girl, a Cynthia can be a great leader,but is always ready to be a team player

So it is my name. I like it and I also like Cindy which I readily respond to. Which is a relief as I worried I wouldn't respond to my name due to years of being conditioned to be Pete.

Quote from: cynthialee on April 27, 2010, 04:25:07 PM

So it is my name. I like it and I also like Cindy which I readily respond to. Which is a relief as I worried I wouldn't respond to my name due to years of being conditioned to be Pete.

You definitely look like a Cindy and not a Pete.

Quote from: LordKAT on April 27, 2010, 04:26:55 PM

You definitely look like a Cindy and not a Pete.

Oh I could kiss you!

I'm a bit of an oddball. I chose my name a long time ago, but not because of my gender. As such, despite the fact that my name is chosen and I'm really quite happy with it, it... technically still doesn't fit my gender. x3 I identify as androgyne, yet my name is Diane. Which, when I first started figuring out the gender thing, felt kind of odd-- I had become so attached to Diane as my name, yet now here I was finding myself no longer identifying as a girl.

The solution ended up being quite simple, though, after I settled down and reaccquainted myself with my identity: Instead of making my name fit society's conception of gender, I rearranged my own concerptions of names and genders to encompass who I clearly feel I am. If I want Diane to be androgynous, the gosh darn it, it IS androgynous. (Heck, I think if I identified as a guy, I would still hang onto my silly name.)

I could come up with some brilliant tale of how I chose my name and how it fits me as an androgyne and all that, but I'd just be making things up. The name "Diane" latched onto me during a roleplaying game with my brother in 6th grade-- heaven only knows how it, of all names, stuck. More or less, I created a character named Diane who, in all my 10-year-old ingenuity, I forgot to gave a personality, so she just became me over time. I'm an androgyne running around with a clearly female name that was derived from a preteen roleplaying faux pas... and I really wouldn't have it any other way.


(I alternatively go by Crow, which is more recently added and definitely androgynous. However, the only people who really seem to call me crow are my students/kids I work with. Most of the rest of the world seems to call me Diane or some derivative thereof. Really, either is fine by me. As long as people don't call me by my birth-name, I'm happy as a clam.)

Mine is very boring. When I was about 5 I started exhibiting strong cross gender behaviour and my mother helpfully feminised my male names on the basis that if I was out with her in public wearing a frock she didn't want to be calling out "James come here" - so she suggested Jaimie - which I hated - and eventually we compromised on Jenny after my second cousin.

So James Patrick Henry became Jenny Patricia Harriet for at least part of the time.

Niether my mother nor I liked Henrietta so I became Harriet.

So Jenny Patricia Harriet - I have been officially since the early 1980's but unofficially since about 1965, and in view of my ongoing transition my schools helpfully issued all my exam certificates in intials and surname form so I have never had to get them altered either.

I now uderstand that some people change their first and indeed last names to emphasise a break with a painful past. But mine was actually mostly pretty wonderful. So I positively wanted continuity as I had an exceptionally happy childhood.

Well despite being named James...i've always been known as Jamie (apart from about 6 years at secondry school where I was James...then Jack...then Jez). Despite Jamie being feminine the problem for me is that it's my boy name...I'd just confuse myself and everyone else. I know the name i;d have been given if i'd been born as I should have been, and that was Arwen Eleanor. However no matter how I tried it I couldn't think of it as my name. In the end the decision was made for me, when Heidi and Marianne (two of my house mates) told me that they thought I looked like a Helen. after a bit of thought and tweaking things slightly, I decided I liked Helen, tho I was going to do things my way and be called Helena as it had a small nod towards Eleanor. I'm using Jamie as my middle name as that gives me a link with who I've always been...if that makes sense.

I chose Elena, derived from Helena, due to its connection to greek mitology (Which I've always liked).
It' s the name of Helen of Troy, who in mitology; was the most femenine and beautiful woman in ancient Greece.

I've had Strife as a surname for years, I never liked my original surname and I'm a big nerd and wanted to rob a video characters name

Nick came about by complete accident, my sister mistakenly called me it one day out of the blue and we were both like "wow that just seems to fit" - and it's stuck since.

Adan was originally a roleplaying character of mine. He was for a long time the only way I had of being me and while I was being home schooled in high school the only thing that kept me sane. Even though I was still stuck in the house all day with my erm 'lovely' family when I was roleplaying as Adan I could be anywhere and I could be me, so it was a name I became attached to. I haven't totally decided on a middle name yet but I'm thinking of using my father's name Michael so when I do finally get my name changed Tara Ann Kelley (Insert equally as silly sounding last name here) will be something along the lines of Adan Michael (insert silly sounding last name again.) This is assuming of course my dad doesn't freak when he finds out I'm trans and try to disown me like some other members of my family.  I don't think he will, but I'm paranoid.

i actually haven't decided on a name yet.. i've been going between Isabella (or Izzy for short) or Zoey. love both of them, can't decide! I've also been working on my middle and last name, so far I like Katsu and Pandora. Anything but my current name, I hate being called Hunter grrrr lol.

Mine is easy.  I love the Rocky Horror Picture Show so I took Susan Sarandon's character.  And the middle name is from my ex.

My partner, who was instrumental in finally helping me to come out, began calling me by this name before I even began my transition, and it just sort of stuck. When I legally changed my name, I feminized my old first name to become my middle name, and I took my partner's last name. To me, that means I was named by and for someone who loved me enough to see how much I was hurting and set me on the path that has led me to where I am now.

I am one of those that Jenny mentioned who changed all my names to make a clean break from a very troubled and abusive childhood. It's been a long road and I'm proud of who I have become, and of my new name that symbolizes all those things to me.

Well, I'm a long way off from being able to change my name, but I thought I'd add my thoughts.

Right now I'm thinking I like the name Will, although William doesn't really suit me. I like Will because it gives me the idea of 'the will to live'. Lately I've been realizing just how much will power I have to get through all this crap, and I thought the name would be an appropriate choice. Of course, I'm really indecisive, so who knows what my name will end up being! 

My birth name is Sebastian, so I feminized it into Sebastina, but I figured I could just shorten it into Tina, and that's how I came to the name Tina. At the moment I am unsure if I want my name legally changed to Sebastina and have Tina as a nickname or to legally change it to Tina.

Quote from: The Unforgiven on April 27, 2010, 11:58:36 PM
I like Will because it gives me the idea of 'the will to live'. Lately I've been realizing just how much will power I have to get through all this crap, and I thought the name would be an appropriate choice.

I love that!

I always wanted to be called Adam, but I wasn't out to my parents and really badly needed to change my birth name because I hated it. I was (and still am) way too scared to come out to my parents so decided it would be best to pick a gender neutral name as I would be able to change it there and then. That's why I chose Addison, it means 'son of Adam', so it is originally a boys name anyway but because of recent 'trends' it's a girls name as well, so I got away with that haha.

In my teens I would sometimes (jokingly (?)) feminize my male name by adding an A at the end, but when I was writing my application to the local trans group, I got a bit stuck when I came to the box labeled "Preferred name".
I thought about it for a while and found that Emma sounded like the kind of person I felt like. To me it sounds like an uncomplicated person. I didn't go to school with any Emmas, but looking at those around five years younger than me, Emma is a more common name. And why not pretend I'm a few years younger? 

(Someone once thought I was younger than my sister, who is four years younger than me)