I hear of many people picking their names like its a no-brainer.  I am wondering if anyone (besides me) has had a difficult time over choosing a permanent name for themselves.  I had a dream the other night where my mother was calling me Diane Elizabeth.  I have already gone through 3 name changes officially on this site and there were at least a half dozen more that I had temporarily tried  (aren't all names temporary?). 

The best way, according to me, is to get a list of 100 most common names for your age and country/region and see what you like.

Asking your mother what she'd have called you if you were a girl seems like a good idea, too.

And the tip to not getting anxious about it is that once you make your decision, don't allow yourself to change your mind, as though a birth certificate had been signed by your mother.

I have my names narrowed down to 2, maybe 3.

Honestly, they are all just popped into my head and random times.

When I'm ready, I'll decide.

I'm debating between Ashley or Amanda. Tonight on my way home, Adina popped into my head. Yes, there is a theme and yes Adina is not a so-called normal name but it fits me and my background.

Yes, I go by Rachel here but I'm not considering it at all. I know way too many Rachels.

Quote from: Ashley_C on April 12, 2012, 09:23:11 PM
I have my names narrowed down to 2, maybe 3.

Honestly, they are all just popped into my head and random times.

When I'm ready, I'll decide.

I'm debating between Ashley or Amanda. Tonight on my way home, Adina popped into my head. Yes, there is a theme and yes Adina is not a so-called normal name but it fits me and my background.

Yes, I go by Rachel here but I'm not considering it at all. I know way too many Rachels.

Screw it, I decided to try out my favorite.

My name pretty much picked me...my mother says when I was very young I asked "why do you call me Michael instead of Michelle, I like that name better" Of course "I" thought it should be Michelle, but my mother said she told me "boys are called Michael" it's been total confusion ever since.

 I hear ya girl having problems deciding on one myself, we should get together for a kumbayya an help each other brainstorm.

I went through a bunch of names.  Biggest problem I had was I kept was meeting women with the names I'd picked and I thought I should change it after meeting them. 

Things worked out for the best because I like my name now and I think I'll be keeping it no matter what because I never felt like I owned my name before.  I do still need a middle name though.  I kinda want it to start with a 'B' cause then my initials would be PBR which I would find hilarious.

Oh yes,

the "G" is for Grace, a dear friend that helped me thru some really tough times in the 90s, Gracie was the sweetest most understanding friend I have had, she moved and so did I, have tried but can't find her at all

  I had this GID for all of my 59 years and didn't get far as to thinking what name I would be called as a woman until over a year ago.  My name selection came with the hormone regimen and the calmness it provided.  I know where you are coming from.  I joined Susan's shortly after I made my selection.  The spelling of my name is unusual for that name, but it preserves the root of my male name, yet it is quite feminine.  This was something I didn't think of for all of these years. 
  Joelene

I've kept the same name all my life, I knew I was Cindy at a very early age, it just fitted me, I've never thought about it to be honest.

But as A said pick names from your age group, otherwise it tends to stand out as being odd. And odd gets noticed.

For most of my life I went by the feminized version of my male name.  When I realised I was going to transition fully I decided to pick a new name as I didn't want to be reminded of my old name all the time.

I used a few filters to narrow down my choices:

• I didn't want to choose the same name as anyone I knew closely
• I didn't want a name that could be easily abbreviated to something masculine
• I wanted a name that would be appropriate for work

That disqualified plenty of names that I really liked, but it did make the decision feel easier for me.  I love the name Emma but I simply know too many of them.  I also like Samantha very much, but I thought people would naturally call me Sam, which didn't feel right for me.  I've noticed that people are very uncreative with their nicknames, so they'll often shorten the long names.  I did also like some of the 'hippy' names but I couldn't imagine using them every day at work.

I think one of the problems we have with choosing a completely new name is that it takes a long time for that name to become grounded.  There was quite a while where I could have easily changed my mind about using Laura as it didn't feel fully attached to myself yet.

Recently though it feels much more like Laura has always been my name.  People have been using the name for long enough now, and I'm in the process of changing all my documents which really helps with this aspect.  I'm going full-time at work very soon too, so that will really help when I see my emails etc always being Laura

Also creating my new signature was a very 'name-affirming' exercise for me. 

I got some crap for my name so far but I'm sticking with it

I went to bed after spending a while going through a list of names, and Karen came to me in a dream, out of the list.

Karen.

Quote from: A on April 11, 2012, 10:50:37 PM
Asking your mother what she'd have called you if you were a girl seems like a good idea, too.

Doesn't always work... I would've been called Amanda

Well, it's an input that can help, I guess. In most cases, at least.