How did you settle on a name?

I asked my parents what names they were thinking of before the genital reveal and just picked one. I think the limited choices helped me actually commit to one.

I wanted a powerful name to strike fear in the hearts of the people that wronged me.

Went for something that meant a lot to me that sounded beautiful.

Pretty much it, really.

i went through a ton of baby name sites specifically looking for names popular in a certain time frame (since it gave me a little more euphoria like "that's who i've always been")

in the end, i went with katherine, because i loved katie but i wanted a fuller version, and elizabeth for my middle name because my mum originally had the name bethany if i was afab and i wanted to use it in my name since she was the first person i told :)

I actually knew what my name was going to be more than a decade before I transitioned. The first time I had ever heard it I sort of latched onto it, somehow I never met anyone else with the name (it's not a particularly uncommon name) but it always stuck with me.

So when I started thinking about socially transitioning it was sort of a no-brainer, it felt like my "real" name had been there waiting for me all along. I know that must sound trite and cliche and not at all helpful but it was a really affirming moment in the process for me.

I also went on those "baby name by year" sites for my birth year, but I purposefully went to the 100-200ish range since I wanted a name that wouldn't stick out too much, but also wouldn't be so common I'd know or meet a bunch of other people that shared it.

I also had a few other things that would be nice but not necessary that I wanted the name to have, so when reading down the list I had a smaller number of names to consider. One just jumped out at me though, so I tried it out for a bit and ended up sticking with it.

I looked up names with meanings that spoke to me, then when I had a few I asked my bestie to help me narrow them down. She also made a gender neutral nickname out of my first name, which is what I usually go by. I love that I get to use a name she picked!

You might like my middle name, it means "island goddess", but most English speaking people have no idea how to pronounce it lol

Tried a few out before landing on my name. I went by another name for a couple months that just never really felt right. Then I found my name and every single person in my life was like "it's perfectly you". People still say that after they've known me for a while haha. I'm pretty sure I found the actual name just by scrolling through a name list. It jumped out at me right away and I was really really happy when I told my friends and they first started using the name for me.

My chosen name, Tess, was literally picked from a variable name from de-obfuscated Minecraft code over a decade ago. It said Tesselator tess = ... or something like that. And I thought "that sounds neat". Some time after, I found out it's also a real name used by real people in the real world.

I actually always knew my name, so that came naturally. But my middle name took a lot more consideration and I ended up settling on one shared by two video game protagonists that inspire me lol.

I didn’t have a particularly negative connection with my given name, and I always liked the people I knew I shared it with. Some of them role models and mentors, some of them ancestors, and even the saint I shared a name with was oddly fitting, even though I’m not religious. I wanted to honor that connection while also taking the chance to reconnect with my family’s ancestry and the language of that land, on top of picking a more femme name. I started researching names from the language of my ancestors but eventually broadened my search to the geographic region as there is pretty heavy overlap between names in the languages of the region. While I was searching I happened to read a book by an author with an unusual name that looked familiar. I realized I had glanced at it in my searching and I took it as a bit of a sign. I researched the name, found it not only is explicitly the femme version of my given name, but its meaning also worked very well. On top of that I like the letters that are in it slightly more than my given name.

Sorry to never actually reveal the name. It’s odd enough I’m pretty sure with that and my post history across the fediverse you could dox me.

Was high, and reading the journal. Phased on the name of somebody and then choose.

It was like "Yeah... this one, I like it"

I just.. tried a bunch. Alexandra was my first, used it for about 6 months online. Didn't like it. Too harsh. Then I tried Sarah, felt better, new test group.. but wasn't right. Unsure why, just wasn't me. Tried Amanda, and that was it.

The downside of this is you have to make disposable friend groups. I made mine on old internet kink websites, a few focused on like.. pre-written "teases". It kept things fairly transactional and anonymous so there wasn't any relationships to break, just another content creator disappearing

Thought it would be annoying to completely change names but i also dont like the feminine versions of my name, so i just made one up.
No one can spell it proper, but i love my new name

After having made several hundred while in character creators I was able to choose one pretty easily.

I'd personally recommend thinking about a character that you can make yourself and want to be as this thought experiment's no different to thinking about the person you want to become rather than are🫡🏳️‍🌈🍀

What made you settle on your names?

I chose a name that I felt best resonated with me and screamed "Yes that's me!😉✨"

I am no-contact with family and hated my given name, so I didn't have the option of most of the suggestions here.

I went through a list of names common in my age group and birth area and stripped out the ones I didn't want for initials. Then I bounced them off my spouse until we got a short list. I asked those who knew I was out to use them, and put them in as my preferred name for appointments.

It turns out all that work was pointless. We had a random night where we were doing something completely unrelated and my spouse said something that I misheard as my new name and it just stuck! Now my legal paperwork is done and I am just waiting for the courts to finish their side of it.

I used to use a (female) nickname for anonymity sake on the internet sometimes and it kinda grew on me...

Since I liked both that nickname and by dead name somewhat, I decided that I'd try a mix between the 2 names and it sorta worked but I was never really convinced. That was until I was going through some old google accounts of mine and noticed that I had a profile pic of a character from a game that I really liked and was incredibly similar to the mix between my nick- and dead name (and could be considered gender neutral).

The only issue was: since it's a very uncommon name, not only did no one know how to spell it, there was also a very good chance that the responsible government agency for name changing stuff would outright reject the name because for some reason you can't have a uncommon/strange name (the rules are extremely vague).

So while that game char name grew on me for a year, I basically had to come up with the name that I actually took within like 2 weeks because of other regulatory issues...

So I picked a pretty common name where I can say "oh, please use [game char name] as a nickname". Don't get me wrong, I quite like the name I took but especially with friends/family it just feels way too serious in comparison. With most people even at work I go by the game char name as a nickname tho and I love it ( ᵔ▽ᵔ)

Edit: I also thought about using the female version of my former middle name - Valentina, but I have too many bad memories of getting made fun of my former middle name... Now that I think about it tho, I might add Valentina back as a middle name in the future

I have yet to find a name, but I'm considering feminine or androgynous variants of my birth name that sound vaguely Japanese. I ran them by my ex and he had no thoughts, so I guess I only selected options that sound normal for a millennial.

I tried a couple differant names out at the same time just using differant names in different social groups I was in. None of them really felt right until one day a new name popped in my head and immediately felt right. Told everyone later that day that that would be my name. Thinking back now, it’s weird to think I was ever called anything else.

Name was honestly not that difficult in the grand scheme of things. Like yeah it took months and I was on hrt before I decided on a name but I already had an idea.

I just took my old initials and found names that came from a similar part of the world. From there I slimmed the list down based on their meanings/translations. I do think that if I had done anything different I'd have a different middle name just because the meaning is kinda an insult even if it's not directed at me. I think that takes power away from the process.

I asked my brother what his name would be if he were a girl and he didn't have a solid answer. He then returned the question and I realised I did and I was 100% sure about it which I did not actually see coming.

I picked a name that has the same first letter as my deadname (though it’s not as dead as I’d like it to be just yet), because it’s a less common letter, and I like that. It’s also the name of my many-times great grandmother, which I think is cool. It is the first one I tried, but it’s felt right and no other names appealed to me as much, so I’m content!

I wanted to keep my initials for practical reasons. And when in an unrelated conversation the name Tamsin came up I was just smitten with it :)
It sounds playful, is a feminine version of my birth name and doesn’t end with an ‘a’, which for some reason is something that I find important.

My middle name is a straight up female version of the old one with zero creativity :)

I never changed it. Tanis back then, Tanis now.

https://behindthename.com/random

Started with the name my ex think suits me. Sounded too gender neutral and common. Tried bunch of names I can think of who were my transition goals. How did I tried? Used that name on food order and also imagined how it would feel like to get referred to that name.

Didn't like any of those either so I looked up list of woman's name. And chose something unique (at least in English speaking country) and has meaning that I feel very connected to.

Take your time

just stole it from one of my friends

poor girl is now left unnamed....

not me but a high school friend transitioned lately. we all kinda knew this from high school though she hadn't come out them. friends there used to call her with a feminine name which she liked. she took that name :)

Hi, I was also born in the UK in the 80s, but I don't live there any more. Did you read any Enid Blyton growing up? I always liked George (Georgina) from the Famous Five books. Perhaps shortening it to Gina instead would work for you.

How did I choose my name? Er, my wife suggested it and I thought "yup, that'll do" :3 There aren't a huge number of names that work in both English and Japanese.