Name change very early?

[JessieMH]

Guess this would be the right place...

To start, I'm only 18, I have no drivers license, no passport, no SSIN, no nothing other then my birth certificate and medical card so what I'm thinking is, would legally changing my name early on, bypassing the annoying bits of all that other stuff be a good thing?

The name I would be changing to isn't really gender specific, my first name isn't even being changed really.  Jesse to Jessie, slightly more feminine but still unisex I guess.  Middle and last name changes, middle would be male to both/feminine.

Thoughts on this idea?  Might be stupid but if it saves me time/money/headaches I don't really see a downside.

[rexgsd]

well my two cents of the matter is that one concern i can think of is if you start to not like the new name in the future. But i don't really know the laws about these things and it's different in every country/state, but maybe you'd have to wait a certain amount of time or have to pay again to change it if you wanted to. And also, are you full time living as female? just thinking it might cause some confusion and such if you aren't. like i said, just my 2 cents

[JessieMH]

Well the reason I am not really changing my first name is that I like it so much so not an issue there I think.

I'm currently pre-everything but things seem to be moving quite fast so who knows when things like part time etc will start.  Again not an issue with confusion I think since the name wouldn't really be tied to gender.

[Sarah B]

Hi JessieMH

You are right it will save you time, money, headaches and even humiliation and there will only be benefits for you in the long run.

I would say "don't crawl, don't walk, don't hesitate, but bloody run down to the 'government department' that deals with name changes and legally change your name/s NOW.  It will save you a lot of hassle in the future when you have to show your ID.  The longer you delay changing your name the more documents you will have to change in the future and should anyone do a search in the future, they will only find, 'Jessie' [Surname]

When you fill in forms after your name change just put a cross or tick or even if you have to write down 'female' and if you can, do it dressed as a female.  However, you could until you get your name changed legally to what you want, just use Jessie instead and the female middle names when filling in the forms and again try and do it dressed appropriately.

It would be a nightmare if I was change my name now and for a little more on why you should change your name now, read this Post

Kind regards
Sarah B

[Arch]

When I changed my name, I did have all of the other docs you mention. But I changed my name over a decade before I started transition, and I'm glad I did. My new name is well established now. My old name is still on one agency's credit reports, even after all these years. I don't know how long it will take for it to disappear. Maybe never.

But I'm FTM. People did think it was odd that I had a male name--an exclusively male name--but it's more socially acceptable for a "girl" to have a boy name than the other way around.

The nice thing about your first name is that if people only hear it and don't see it, that won't set off any alarm bells. If (pretransition) they see it written, they might think it's just an eccentric spelling. But when you're well into transition and unmistakably female, they'll accept it as a female name.

I say go for it. Even if you decide to change your name again years from now, at least you'll already have a female name on file.

[Al James]

i say go for it. making things easier for ourselves can only be a good thing

[Sage Fallon]

If it's a name you're happy with I see no reason not to get it over with sooner rather than later. It will definitely save you a lot of headachs in the future. I changed mine at 21, still fairly young, but there were still a few pains in the butt to get past. I'm glad I went through with it though. I still get calls or pieces of mail in my old name, but it's only been a little over a year, hopefully that stops after a while.

[Arch]

I still get calls or pieces of mail in my old name, but it's only been a little over a year, hopefully that stops after a while.

I was getting mail in my old name for years. It might help if you sign up on one of those anti-junk-mail agencies. I dunno. But don't expect it to stop in the next couple of years. It might not.

One thing that I think might help--if you get a catalog or a charity plea in the old name, write to the company and tell them to change the name and not share EITHER name with other companies. You can create a form letter for this and just change the date and company name/address every time. Also, keep a list of companies you write to.

It's a pain, but you can let the catalogs pile up for a week or two and then mail out letters to five or six companies at once.

ETA: Just remembered--a friend recently told me that you can call 1-800-NOTHANKS to get off specific mailing lists. Apparently, you have to tell the people which companies you don't want to hear from. But this is one way to take care of some of the mail.

[LordKAT]

Or return the mail with deceased written on it.