So How'd You Choose Your Name (ftm Version)?

[Guest Emily1]

I was curious about why people want to change their last names?

The main reason I have heard is because if you want to go stealth, a surprising amount of information can be found about you with the added knowledge of your last name. Personally, I'm Intending on keeping my last name (Graetz, though I prefer the German spelling, Grätz) because although I will primarily want stealth, if someone finds out, I will not contradict them, and (hopefully) be totally fine with it.

Not to mention, I want to be a doctor, and Dr. Donahue just doesn't have a good ring to it.

Actually, I think Dr. Donahue sounds rather nice (though of course your opinion is what matters most)

[Guest Crossroads]

I was curious about why people want to change their last names?

I know you've all heard this from me a million times. A family name is supposed to mean something. It is a homage to the ones that came before you, to everything that they stand for. It's an honor, really, just as anyone who was named after someone knows. I know that many trans people change their name in honor of someone.

I feel no honor from my last name. I feel that my family line, while perhaps not the worst of people, is one I would not want to be connected with. I'd much rather be connected to the goddess that Augustus proclaimed to be descended from as well as the Julian line itself.

[Guest Zabrak]

I was curious about why people want to change their last names?

Actually, I was thinking of doing it before I found out my family was supportive of me. I was thinking of doing it because if I was not going to be accepted into the family as who I was I didn't want to be a part of it. That might be another reason why some trans change their last name.

I don't see it as really 'getting away from them' but more claiming pride in who you are and starting life anew with a new surname - a new id. I take changing my last name as gloriously and freeing as changing my first name.

[ChristianRay]

I always liked the name "Christian", because it translates well into almost every language and "Rafael" because that's what my parents would've called me had I been born male. My friends kept calling me "Raffi" and I hated the nickname - so they started calling me Ray, which is finde with me. Some call me Chris, some Ray, depends on the person.

[Guest Draik]

I was curious about why people want to change their last names?

I want to change my last name because first off it's a really uncommon German name that nobody even knows how to pronounce. Second, I don't really have my dad's last name because he hasn't been a part of my life and I'm not close to his family.

Also Mel, Kage is a really cool name. I have a friend with that name but spells it Kaige.

Anyway, I got the name Cain after I used it as a name for a character in a story I wrote for school and just thought it was cool. For a middle name I'm stuck on either William of Alexander. I thinking about having like a more uncommon first name then a classic middle. I might just end up doing a double middle name because I can't choose. I like William a little bit more but overall Cain Alexander I think goes better than Cain William.

[Guest Aleckzandre]

My birth name was Alexa, and I really didn't like the thought of just changing it to Alexander, cause that seemed pretty boring, so I thought of names I liked, but they never seemed to stick. I eventually decided to change it to Alexander, but spell it Aleckzandre because that makes it a lot less boring to me. Now it's hard for me to spell it the normal way, haha

[Sally]

Hey Aleckzandre,

I didn't know that wasn't the normal way, nut then I have trouble spelling anything the normal way!

I named my Kat Phydeaux - I don't know why she is having troubles - she says it's because I gave her a dawg's name! (for once spelling errors are intentional)

That's the cool thing about choosing your own name, also the bad thing - before you could always blame it on your parents!

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Evan_J]

"Why do you want to be black?" "Why do you want to be poor?"

**Chuckles** And you realise the thing that makes it funny is that they were sayiing it as if you might "unzip" without their permission and come home black LOL

Let the record show, I hate the phrase "talking proper".

[Guest Aleckzandre]

That's the cool thing about choosing your own name, also the bad thing - before you could always blame it on your parents!

Yeah. I decided to let them pick out my middle name though so they have some input, That was my friend Kaleb's idea, which I personally think is brilliant since they spent such a long time naming me in the first place. I don't want all their hard work to be in vain. I just hope they choose a good one.

[Guest Crossroads]

**Chuckles** And you realise the thing that makes it funny is that they were sayiing it as if you might "unzip" without their permission and come home black LOL

Let the record show, I hate the phrase "talking proper".

Even funnier, when I wanted to wear a tux to my sister's wedding, my mom called Angie and asked her "Why is Juli so caught up in wearing men's clothes? Why does she want to be a man?" This was two years before I ever considered this. Angie said she sounded ready to commit suicide. I'll bet she'll have a heart attack.

And I hate the phrase "talking white".

[Guest Drew]

Even funnier, when I wanted to wear a tux to my sister's wedding, my mom called Angie and asked her "Why is Juli so caught up in wearing men's clothes? Why does she want to be a man?" This was two years before I ever considered this. Angie said she sounded ready to commit suicide. I'll bet she'll have a heart attack.

sounds like my mom.

[Guest Seth]

I think I may've posted this somewhere else...?

ANYSNOOPS, for the longest time, I wanted my name to be Salem, cuz all I had to do was switch the letters in my female name around and I've always wanted a very quirky name. And for a while, when iw ore my hair really long, Saleme seem to fit.

Then I chopped it all off, and people didn't think Salem fit too well anymore since I was gonn start weaing short hait.

So, my friend Rae was like "what sounds like Selma (my female name) but is a guy's name? Se-- se-- Seth. You look like a Seth."

From then on, I've gone by Seth. And even though I'm not legally changing my name cuz I like my birth name too much and name doesn't determine gender, I'll continue to intro myself as Seth until I start T, so I can pass as a guy.

When I start T, I'm gonna intro myself as Selma.

[Guest Mel7]

I might just end up doing a double middle name because I can't choose. I like William a little bit more but overall Cain Alexander I think goes better than Cain William.

Yeah, I think Cain Alexander sounds better, but it's whatever you want, man. And William Cain is pretty cool. Just saying. XD

Now I understand about the whole last name thing. Kage Surratt doesn't really roll off the tongue though, but I love my last name because of the ties with Lincoln. XD But...I shouldn't be too happy about that, hahaha!

ANYSNOOPS, for the longest time, I wanted my name to be Salem, cuz all I had to do was switch the letters in my female name around and I've always wanted a very quirky name.

Hahaha! Dude, for a moment I was like "His name was Males?...Meals?...Leams!...nope." XDD

[Guest Jeffrey]

It just made sense to me one day. Jeffrey.

haha, believe you me Kayla is a hard name to change.

[Guest Emily1]

Yeah, I think Cain Alexander sounds better, but it's whatever you want, man. And William Cain is pretty cool. Just saying. XD

Now I understand about the whole last name thing. Kage Surratt doesn't really roll off the tongue though, but I love my last name because of the ties with Lincoln. XD But...I shouldn't be too happy about that, hahaha!

Hahaha! Dude, for a moment I was like "His name was Males?...Meals?...Leams!...nope." XDD

yah, I could not stop thinking "Slaem?" (not that I think you are slime, just that got stuck in my head

[Guest Crossroads]

It just made sense to me one day. Jeffrey.

haha, believe you me Kayla is a hard name to change.

Yeah, my birth name is Julianne. I f***** hate it!!! It's really long to write out, no one spells it right, and when you say that name in the south, you end up getting called, "Oh! Juli Mae?" I'm like.... "NO!!!! Can't you hear!"

That's why I started going by Jules, although people insist on calling me "Jew-el" all long and drawled out.

Sometimes, I hate the south.

[Guest Seth]

HOLY CRAP MY GIRLFRIEND'S NAME IS JULIANNE.

Whoa, that's trippy.

[Guest TheShana82]

This something I am having trouble with... My name is unique and my mother basically created it for me.. so I have thought of keeping it... But I think it sounds feminine... MischAna

I have thought of Shawn or Shane since its not to far from what everyone calls me ( Shana ) and some people already call me Shawn out of pure laziness... but I don't feel any attachment to those.... I'm sure I will figure it out one day

[Guest Evan_J]

This something I am having trouble with... My name is unique and my mother basically created it for me.. so I have thought of keeping it... But I think it sounds feminine... MischAna

What's wrong with doing what most of language does to masculinize something? Change the -"a" to an -"o". MischAno. Or Mischano. Then again my mother once hired a genetic dude named Betty so.....

[Guest Kyden]

I got my name which is Kyden Louis, as a basic continuation of my given name to keep my intials which i love. Kyden is said like kay-den, the name itself from my best friend, we felt it was the most unique name possible. The name louis is a name thats close to my given middle name, since i am named after my great grandma i kept it.

[Guest MrAwesome]

Well, i just picked my official name last night, Lewis Raymond. The Ray I got cause I've been going by it for a while. My name begins with Ra, which sounds like ray, so I've been going by Ray cause it's a boys name, and people aren't as reluctant to call me something just short for my name. But I don't like the name Raymond very much, I was thinking about Stephen Micheal, which is what my mom was gonna call me if I was a boy, maybe Robert, to stick with the Rs, I think that name would be nice for me. And I was also thinking Lucifer XD It doesn't register to me right off the bat as the name of Satan, and I liked the sound of the name. So, since no one thought I should go with Lucifer, I still wanted to go with the Lu part, hence Lewis Ray. Though I might still go with Lucifer. I really like it.

[Guest Lee]

I believe I said this before, but I'll say it again.

It took me a while to figure out my name, and I went through many names trying to figure it out. Frank, Dimitri, even Kohrtaw Tawyihg, which is from a language I'm (trying) to create. But, about a year and a half ago I was creating a new 'real' e-mail address and I just knew what my name was and so I picked Malone for a first name. Middle name came later, when I started having people call me Lee, which I figured would be easier to explain because I wasn't out to friends yet and Lee I could just say was a shortening of my legal first name, Molly. As a plus, it is also my mom's middle name, as well as a surname from my maternal Grandma's side of the family.

As for last names, I was originally going to change it to O'Grady, which is going back several generations on my mom's side, sort of (it was shortened to Grady when my ancestors came to America and is my mom's maiden name), because I thought for sure my father would disown me. Go figure, he didn't, but I still wanted that Irish last name, so I ended up deciding to move my father's last name into a second middle name. And then several months ago, I decided to change the spelling of the last name to an even older version: O'Grádaigh, which is pronounced basically the same as O'Grady. I rather like the sound and look of Malone Lee Plemmons O'Grádaigh.

[Guest My_Genesis]

lol, i just had to reply to this because I feel kinda guilty about it. I haven't really come up with a name that fits, and I have a serious lack in creative ability, so every time I start thinking about what I would want my name to be, and I really don't know how I came up with this so please don't laugh at me or get mad or anything (esp. the women) lol..but the way I try to figure out if a name fits me or not is by imagining it being screamed out in a girl's voice

So far I haven't had much luck with that so I thought I should find a different way to determine how well a name "fits", but I mean, c'mon, that's the ultimate test!

[Guest Jackson]

..but the way I try to figure out if a name fits me or not is by imagining it being screamed out in a girl's voice

So far I haven't had much luck with that so I thought I should find a different way to determine how well a name "fits", but I mean, c'mon, that's the ultimate test!

I wish I could have come up with your response. That is classic. Can I borrow that sometime when someone asks me how I came up with mine?

[Guest Evan_J]

imagining it being screamed out in a girl's voice

So far I haven't had much luck with that so I thought I should find a different way to determine how well a name "fits", but I mean, c'mon, that's the ultimate test!

......how in the name of god did we ever live before you came around LOL You make my day fun. But actually, you're not too far off, imagining (and even better if you had a cool friend who would holler your name different ways) the name getting used in a variety of scenarios is an excellent way to choose it (or at least part of the way to choose it). 'course, you also might want to think about how it sounds cuz she's screaming it as part of cursing you out always part of a mans life at some point.