yo transitioning people! (names etc)

[Jess]

Jessica.  When I was really little, I guess about 5 or 6, I would go to bed early, close my eyes and lay awake and imagine being what I should have been all along.  I would fight sleep just so I could stay and think about how things should have been.  I imagined being a daughter, school, playing, just about everything.  Through all of that time my name was Jessica.  It still is when I close my eyes and dream.

[Cassandra]

Jessica, you sound exactly like me. I went so far as to take the Sears catalog and circle all the outfits I wanted my clothes to turn into. I always hoped that I would awake and everything would be the way it was supposed to be and everything else was just a bad dream. Never happened of course.  I was like that until I was about 12 and the Psyco babilist "therapists" drilled it out of me., along with his advice to my family to enroll me in all kinds of male dominant sports. That will fix him. Yeh, like I needed to be fixed. Sheeesh!

Anyway I digress. Lisa was the name I always thought of and when I first began my journey into womanhood that was the name I choose. Somehow as an adult I realised I was not as enamoured with the name as I thought. Hearing it for awhile I realised this is not the name I want to go through the rest of my life with.

So I began casting about for a new name. As a child I was big into Greek Mythology and the name Cassandra popped up. She was a priestest for the Oracle who was cursed to see the future but that no one would heed her prophecies. Kind of like no one would heed the fact that, I'M A GIRL!

Also, my Grandmother whom I loved dearly and who secretly would make my face up and do my nails when no one was around, always called me Laddie. Cassie has the same ring to it and when I here it is natural and I respond immediately as if it had always been my name. It is both familiar and filled with love. So I am Cassandra(Cassie).

[AllisonY2K]

I first decided on Alison looking through a website of baby names. Then as time progressed, the more TG messageboards I went to, the more I saw other girls with the name Alison, so I added a second L. Fortunatly Allison is not as popular and therefore not as easily confused. After some thought for a middle name, I thought Michelle had a nice sound to it since Allison has double-Ls in the beginning, and Michelle has double-Ls at the end. Still deciding on a last name. I was going to keep my birth last name but talks with my parents are going very sour so why keep a last name of a family that won't accept me?

[Naomi]

I swapped round with names to a bit... First I liked Trisha, then Sonia and now Naomi... I hope I can stick with this name!

[tiffani66]

Hi, everyone.  My first attempt at naming myself brought forth the name Tiffany.  For some time, I could not decide what to use as a middle name, so I let it be.

In '96, I began to spell my name with an I at the end, like Terri-Gene.  Also like Terri-Gene, I decided to have a hyphenated first name, specifically Tiffani-Angelique, as a remembrance of my very diverse ancestry (I am 1/8 First Nations, 1/16 Creole and either 1/16 or 1/32 black [I'm not sure which one is correct]); once in a while, I can even be angelic as the name suggests, though I am generally very stubborn (due to my having been born under the sign of the bull, Taurus).

As a further reminder of my Creole ancestry, I chose the surname Pontchartrain.  For those of you who do not understand French, the name breaks down to "bridge, chart or map, train", so the real meaning of the name is a map of a trestle (train bridge).

It seemed appropriate to bridge (groan!) my life with this surname, as I was trying to cross from one side of life's experiences to the other.

Finally, about a year ago, I decided that Rosalynde should be my middle name.

So here is my full name: Tiffani-Angelique Rosalynde Pontchartrain.

Due to the necessity of having to undergo SRS to fully change our ID up here, I have not tried to obtain a legal name change at this time.  That one letter, M,  can make life very difficult for us indeed.  *Sigh*

Tiffani

[Kendall]

I started out with Sierrenna. This name was ok, but I could never identify with that name too much, so it sounded unnatural. I just made it up. I think I will always remember that name though, as something unique.

My current GF asked what I called myself. She heard other TGs calling themselves female names. I didnt want to use that name anymore but something unrealistic. I told her I dont like the name I choose anymore and didnt have a name. I tried calling my mom and finding out what the female name she was going to call me if I had been a girl (If its a boy....If its a girl....). She never told me.

She said she heard some based off my real first name feminized. Kendra, Kenna, Kenya, Kenda . Actually all 4 of these are good to me, since based on the same name.

[stephanie]

Well everyone in my family (who still doesn't know about the real me) calls me something along the lines of "D" because it's the first letter of my given name.  Originally I thought of it being "Dee" but I didn't like that.  I toyed around with names that I used to like - Samantha, Cynthia, Chrystal, Candice, (think I have something for C names).  I would have chosen Chrystal but while in Michigan I knew a Crystal who was not a nice person at all, so it kind of ruined that name for me.  I thought something feminized from my old name - Dierdre, Darlene was a nice one, but one day I remembered being in high school art class where we had to use our name or pick a name and stylize it to match our personalities.  I remember one of the names I drew was Stephanie.  It just sounds very classy to me.  So it stuck.

I haven't decided on a middle name yet, but was thinking something like Annabelle, also a classy name.

[Ben]

I picked Ben, firstly because it's quite similar to my original name, so wouldn't be too hard to get used to. Also, it was the name of my first proper boyfriend, and although he hates his name (he likes to be called by a girl's name, was weird going out with a man who's way more woman than I am), I really like it. He left a big impact on my life, and so his name can.

Middle name I'm not sure about as yet, I'm thinking Timothy because that's what my parents would have called me if I was a boy, also it's the name of one of my best friends in the world and I said to him once that I'd name one of my kids after him - now I doubt I'll have kids, so naming myself after him is the next best thing. My last name I'm keeping because although they don't know who I am yet, I'm very close to my family and I know they'll accept me.

[Svetlana]

my parents are still calling me "James", "he" and "him" (along with my brothers and sister, who follow their lead) and i must admit it's starting to get to me.  everybody else without exception calls me lana.  it's also the only thing i know of that my mum and dad are sensitive about people even mentioning.

ah well, ne mind - random thought.