How many names did you try before picking one?

I was thinking about using two separate names at one point (birth and male), and I was considering these names:

Kai (what my parents were going to name me if I was born male. It was my leading contender)

Zander

Luke

Then I decided to go with one gender neutral name. I considered:

Ash

Z

Riley

Alex

I went with Alex! It's my middle name shortened, and all the Alex's I've known are super nice.

 

One actually. I saw the name Adrian and it stood out to me. It felt great to be called Adrian so....now my name is Adrian. Still trying to figure out of middle name however...

 

I began with Bernie as it felt neutral enough and I wasn't super-confident. I don't want to put my current name on here, but in the process of picking it I considered Peregrine but decided it sounded just a tad too pretentious (read: too cool for me) and Vincent, but my current name grew on me more.

 

I started with Kelsey. Shortly after my dad brought up the fact I could use my name given to me at birth still. So when it came time to pick it was either Kelsey as a first name and Jordyn as my middle name or Jordyn as the first and Kelsey in the middle. I settled on the former as I felt with a name change it would help me feel more like a new person, which is what I wanted.

 

I've only used one first name, which was Bradley. I've had two middle names though. The one that I was originally going to go with was Joseph. Then, my dad was sad because he chose my birth name (Ashley). So, I changed it to Ashton. I have my name legally changed now, so it is going to stay this way for a while.

 

I was leaning towards Jennifer, but then my bestie called me Victoria and it felt right. so I'm going with Victoria. I like it, it feels good when I hear it.

For my middle name I was thinking of JoAnne. I think it's pretty, and since my birth name is Joseph and I've always liked the female spelling "Jo", I figured it would make things easier when I come out at work if everyone still calls me Jo. I mean, its just a middle name. it won't be a big deal to ditch it and find work later as Victoria

 

I went through Alex, Ashe, Jasper, Alex again, and finally settled on Nico. I think it suits me well, and I get the best feeling when I hear someone say it. As for middle name...... I may use Alexander. As an Ode to my original name change, haha.

 

5 or 6. The or part is because I chose Rowe based on my middle name, but realized it could be shortened from Rowan, so I decided Rowan and Rowe being a nickname. Oh, I also use one of the former names (Coby) as a middle name.

 

I actually went with the first name I found. My birth name meant "joy", because my mother had a dream before I was born where she was told that if she wanted a happy baby, she had to name the baby something happy. I have always loved that story, so when I went about changing my name, I wanted something that had the same meaning. Unfortunately, the choices for masculine names that mean "joy" and match even a little with my cultural and racial history are very limited. I picked one from the short list that I liked (it's Welsh) and rolled with it. It's unusual but I love it.

My middle name is my grandfather's name. He passed away before I transitioned, but I like to think he would have approved. He was always big on people doing what made them happy (I have a 60 year old aunt who was a marine biologist, and he's the reason she made that choice during a time period where it wasn't really acceptable for women to choose that kind of career) and he was also big on political activism.

 

I had a long list of names I liked, but the only two I seriously considered were Chase and Aaron... I am Chase, and proud of it! ^_^

 

Peter, Emett, Charles, James, Lewis, Christopher, David, Erik, Asa...

And finally Alec, which I chose somewhat spontaneously and have held for a while. It is the one, as that is what l told my parents my name is when I came out.

It is derived from Alexander and means "defender," which I like.

 

Me, none. This one name (not telling) just kept coming back to me very annoyingly. In the beginning, I thought it was ridiculous (for starters, it's english, and I'm not in an english-speaking country), but when no other name came to mind, and my current name just wouldn't disappear from my brain, I accepted it. And my friends - well, the ones who are still friends - loved it right away, that was actually quite wonderful. It's like the wand that chooses the wizard or something.

 

:icon_bigg

 

If I were to ever change I have no doubt I would use the name "Lauren". It's always been my favorite women's name.

 

Currently considering Keri, although no idea whether that'll stick or not. Do kinda quite like it though.

 

It didn't take me long to settle on mine. But I did have a running list of names, all had to begin with the letter B (because the kids are in alphabetical order in my family). And I just landed on my name, really not long after deciding I wanted to transition. There was a brief point when I briefly considered something like Brian or Bryan but the name I settled with was just me. (I don't mention this too often cause I'm always worried since my name's not too common but I'm a Byron. Pronounced "By-ren")

My middle name, on the other hand, that took a couple years before I found something I was happy with.

 

I considered using about 5 other names until I recently settled on one that's perfect.

They included:

Day
Eccel
Aron
Riley

i forgot the last :/

but one of the above mentioned will one day be my middle name, Eccel

 

Now the middle name changed. I'm now Rowan Madison. Rowan seemed like a more masculine name, so I needed a more feminine middle name to balance it out. I looked at a list of gender-neutral names, and realized that Madison (which my parents would have named me if I was born female) was on there, and I thought Rowan Madison sounded good.

The problem is that now my initials would be RMM, which just bothers me because it's the same letter twice in a row. Initials like that have always bothered me.

 

Quite a few...

-Lee
-Levi
-Cody
-Lucas
-Spencer
-Hunter
-Aaron
-Reid

 

Just in case you were interested in my opinion since I have impeccable taste and am very picky with names haha, I loooove Byron. I would have never thought about that name. In fact I read an earlier post from you that said you had to pick a B name to stick with family tradition and I was like "Ugh, poor guy, there are very few good B names. I bet he is stuck with "Bob" or something.". But Byron is awesome. And I usually don't like names that are too "special" or uncommon. But that is a classic name we've all heard of, just not much recently, so I totally dig it. Awesome!!

---------- Post added 20th Jul 2016 at 03:12 AM ----------

My birth name is also Ashley. I really hate that name and I actually changed it to another female (but less blatantly feminine) name when I was like three years old and never went back, though I still get called Ashley at some jobs or at school when it seems pointless to correct people. Later I was sad that neither of my names could be masculinized really (even before I knew I was trans. I just wanted the option.), until I worked at FedEx for a while and one of my supervisors kept calling me Ashton mistakenly. I found that I really liked it when she addressed me and I never corrected her, though unfortunately she eventually corrected herself, I guess when she saw my name written somewhere. But yeah, I was like "Ashton! Of course!". I had never even thought of that one. I quite like that name and it was one of the other names I considered when I was first coming out to myself, but my fiancee really doesn't like it so I was like whatevs. I think Patrick suits ME better personally anyway.

---------- Post added 20th Jul 2016 at 03:15 AM ----------

Other names I considered:

Calvin
Nathan
Thomas
Jack
Chase
Scott
Chandler
Blake


However, none of them actually felt right. I can guarantee you all right now, I am sticking with Patrick even if I found something I liked better. I have already told way too many people that name and I feel weird enough since I changed my name once already as a kid.

---------- Post added 20th Jul 2016 at 03:21 AM ----------

Oh I forgot Eddie, Pete, Louis and Shawn