Hi. I have eventually decided to register and make myself known...and to stop all the endless perusing of some of these forums as an outsider. I hope to gain a few more perspectives about my own journey as well as hopefully positively contribute to others' journey. I've noticed with some intros that some new member's seem pretty clear about their new adopted name already...It's been almost 12 months of HRT and two years of counselling and I've still to come up with something that sticks! Perhaps this is the sign of fussiness...For now I'll just call myself ImogenS. As such, I'm still in "quasi-guy mode", and believe that the facial changes are not as advanced to warrant me to seriously venture out in full time mode without appearing a bit ridiculous. This and the sense that I'm just not psychologically ready to fully come out to a smallish provincial city and have my already fragile esteem put further in doubt. Hmm. a sort of testing half-way station..

Hey there, welcome to the forum!

Hey first of all welcome. First of all Congradulations on all of your progress. As for the name give it time it took me about 2 years to find mine during my online phase. You'll know it when the right name hits you. Thats how it was for me I just woke up one night and said "Hey this is the name for me!". If you want advice on makeup and stuff don't hesitate to ask. Also Something that gave me the courage to try dressing in private this weekend is a great article on this site that i read today. It can be found here: https://www.susans.org/reference/tsguide.html

Being online let me try out a lot of names. On some sites it can be very hard to find an available name, especially if you don't like adding a lot of numbers to it.

Once I was pretty sure about it, I used the big online auction site and bought a class ring that said Alicia on it. It wasn't of my year and I know nothing about the school, but it felt great just to hold it. Then I found it fits my pinky. With the Alicia side towards me I kept looking at it and the stone and kept thinking that's me. It's like a little bit of her came inside the stone. I've since tried to find other personalized Alicia and even Alyssa items but had almost no success. I'm also hoping one of the cheaper Alicia.(something) domain names will expire so that can be mine too without paying an outrageous price.

Hi ImogenS, welcome to Susans!  We're always happy to have new friends! You have to try on names until you find one that fits. See you around, hugs, Tracey

Thanks all for the replies. To John1984, yep, even if one isn't settled on a name, I guess it's pretty important that one at least be referred to as the gender of one's choice...just to know that they really do feel right about it all. Still, their may be a few a androgenous names which also might fit - eg. kim, lesley, kerry, jo...  How one feels inside about a name often changes ..doesn't it?

Yeah definitely have to try them out, funny thing for me is that I started off with the name Allie but that's my wife's sister's name! (I didn't know her when I started using that name online tho). So I looked around and found Kaylie, I like it a lot though at least for now =P. Anyways you'll figure it out 

hey and welcome 
as for suggestions i just kinda used a username i had alot of accounts under for different things
and i also used my nick name, friends used to call me "stache" all the time and then it grew into "emostache" so... yea 
sorry i'm not that helpful but, meh
...anyways welcomez to the site and make yourself feel at home 

Imogen is a beautiful name.

Hi, and welcome to Susans! We have people come to visit us from all over the world, expressing different points of view, and you are likely to find someone to help you along your way Here are some important links and things to ponder as you begin your journey here.

• Site Terms of Service and rules to live by
  
• Standard Terms and Definitions
  
• Post Ranks ( including when you can upload an avatar/post links and photos)
  
• Age and the Forum
  
• Reputation rules