BBC News- How do people who change gender choose a name?

[Guest CassieX]

So I was sitting waiting for an appointment with my electrologist this evening when I came across this story on my phones BBC News App.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-23790148

Cassie

[Guest Nikki P]

My name was in fact chosen the same way as the woman in that story. My mom has told me many times before what my name would have been if I was born a girl. So I just took it... it had a certain feeling to it. It was indeed my name. It was the name I always had. That name was floating in the back of my head for years before transition.

[Charlize]

I would do the same thing Nikki except my cousin got named Sarah and my son married a Sarah. Charlie is ok for now. It kind of fits me. I'm certainly a bit of a mix of female with 63 years of trying to be male thrown in.

Hugs,

Charlie

[Guest Kalie Aowynn]

I envy you nikki,

I have never had a closeness with my mother so I chose to go away from the name she had chosen if I had been born a girl and that was Patricia Elaine. I have chosen to go with A first name that is fantasy character of mine from AD&D and that is Kalieaaowynn . Now for my last name I have chosen to go with and ancestral last name of my Family and that is Gammell . We were celts of the british Isles. Well there you have it lol.

[Carolyn Marie]

"...Thaylor became Taylor." OK, anything is possible, but I've never heard of a Thaylor in my life. Anyway, good article, Cassie. Thanks for posting it.

HUGS

Carolyn Marie

[tracy_j]

Interesting article Cassie. I can see it would be an additional problematic task for some people when they are in constant flux.

I chose my name on the spur of the moment really - I have always liked the name Tracy and when at work one day we were asked to do a web based trial of a certain application I chose Tracy for an email address (as a female). When later a collegue informed me it was also a male name (more usual in USA than UK probably) I realised that it was an ideal androgyne name so have kept it. At the moment I only generally use online and with people I have met from getting to know online. I am unlikely to change completely but am likely to use Tracy more frequently as a good part of my family and a number of friends are aware of it.

Tracy x

[Guest lostflower]

My story is the same as Nikki and the woman in the story I wonder if that's the most common source of "real names" for trans people for the ones with accepting parents anyway

My mum told me years ago what name she had wanted to use if she'd had a girl

I love Anime and all things Japanese Hana is a Japanese name that means flower, it just seemed right and I can answer my mum picked my name before I was born if someone asks

So I got my real name

Hannah

[Guest LizMarie]

I was told what my name would have been if I'd been identified as a girl at birth and I thought about that growing up but then my sister was born when I was 13 and that's the name she got. So I adapted and chose my grandmother's middle name (Elizabeth) about that time. I wandered from middle name to middle name in my head as my dysphoria would come and go over the years but not too many years ago I settled on Marie and when the latest dysphoria episode began, the one that led to me actively planning my own suicide and thus led to me working with a therapist, I knew what my name was.

[Guest CassieX]

It's really nice to read all the stories everyone had about how they chose their name. I was on the phone with my Mum earlier today, so I decided to take the plunge an ask her what my name would have been if I had been born a girl. She told me Laura Catherine, which puts me in mind of silk, not at all like the way I ultimately turned out, which as Cassie is fizzy.

Cassie

[Guest sophia.gentry58]

When I first started going out to gay clubs in female mode I did so without a lot of forethought. The moment I was first asked what my name was I didn't have a clue of what to say and it hadn't dawned on me before then that I would be asked such an obvious question. I immediately thought of my co-worker who began working on the same day as I did at my previous employment. Her name is Sabrina and so I suddenly blurted out her name as the name I addressed myself as. When it became crystal clear to me that I would be making a full transition I decided to give what would become my legal name at some point some serious thought as to what I wanted that to be.

There were two women that I had a serious crush on when I was growing up and so therefore, I began to consider which of the two I should take. The first name I considered was Cicely; however, I quickly rejected that name because my wife resembles Cicely Tyson and she knew that I had always had an affinity for Cicely Tyson. My second choice was, of course, Sophia. I chose this name because I had such a crush on Sophia Loren whom I believe was one of the most stunningly beautiful women on the screen during the time I was growing up. And, as the story goes, "the rest is history", or will be once I legitimize it via the courts.

Sophia

[Guest LizMarie]

Or, in our cases, Sophia, "the rest is herstory."

[Guest LauraJen]

Stories of how people choose their names always fascinate me, thank you for sharing this Cassie.

I think I first started to identify with Laura in preschool when there were other girls with the name. I have tried several others in the last ten years or so, but Laura has stuck the most. I was regularly caught looking at name books in this time so this made perfect sense to my parents when I came out. A couple of months ago I had a major dilemma involving a cousin with the same name and I wondered about changing it. Sometimes I do get moments where I consider it. There are plenty of names I like to almost the same extent (when Laura, Lauren and Lara are all in your top 10 it causes issues, Sarah's another good one) and sometimes Laura gets briefly overtaken, but whenever I privately experiment with a different one I always miss it being Laura, so I just end up having the same problem in reverse. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that Laura is definitely the right name and there is no point trying to go with anything else. I am pretty well established as this now anyway and I also have personalised gifts from a very dear ally. How could I possibly change it now?

Now, Jennifer - nearly half my life ago I also experimented with this, and role-played as a female character with the name in Pokemon games. When Laura took over, Jennifer somehow found its way into the middle name spot. I really cannot recall any clearer how I arrived at that combination.

So, Laura Jennifer, hence my username, LauraJen.

[KathrynJulia]

My mother's name was Katherine, but everyone called her Kay and she went by that name all of her life. I was named after my father and was a junior all of my life. I researched the three ways of spelling Katherine, Catherine, and Kathryn. Katherine is the English spelling, Catherine is the French way. Katerine is the Russian way, but Kathryn is a newer way and is particularly preferred Irish spelling, hence I chose that spelling and I prefer it.

My mother was planning on naming the next girl after my sister as either Julie or Julia. Since my second sister ended in a miscarriage, I have chosen and have legally changed my name to Kathryn Julia.