Creative Project: What goes into picking a name?

I feel the same. It might sound strange but though my birth name if definitely feminine, I don't view it that way. It could be because it's not very common and I don't know anyone else who has my name. I simply cannot imagine a girl being called by my birth name. In fact, the only time I got really dysphoric about my name was when someone showed me a picture of a girl who happens to have the same name I have. I guess I will have to think about if I want to change my name in real life, after I've come out to more people.

 

I picked my name by scrolling through multiple baby name sites (they really are a very convenient tool for when you want to change your name). In the end I found lists of gender neutral names and went through them until a name felt comfortable.
I'm Quinn Alexander, I picked Quinn because it's not that used, at least not where I'm from, and because it sounds a little like my birth name, and I don't feel completely separate from that name so I liked that link. I picked Alexander because it's a name I've always loved and it's a more typically male name.
I'm genderqueer leaning more towards male and I liked how the combination of a neutral and a male name sort of summed that up.
I hope your story goes well. More SAGA literature is always welcomed.

 

Oh hi! I'm a writer too.

I tried choosing my name like I choose my character's name. I already knew that Alexander would be somewhere in the name. I have always loved and connected to that name ever since I first heard it.

Originally it was to be a first name but I soon realized that as much as I love the name it isn't suited for a first name for me. I was also looking at the fact that both my brothers have middle names that start with A, so I wanted to keep that up. Alexander got moved to a middle name.

The finding of a first name was a long process. I like a lot of names, but none fit my personality for long, or flowed well with the others. That names flow well together is a big thing for me.

When I settled on Ryan it was really me just me making a stupid joke. I watch a lot of Rooster Teeth, Achievement Hunter especially, and the sentence "I love Ryan." comes out of my mouth on the daily. I made the joke of "I should just call myself Ryan" and the more i thought about it the more I liked it. Ryan isn't an uncommon name, but it isn't exactly an overly common one either. I actually don't know a single Ryan in real life.

Ryan Alexander W(insert rest if last name), actually flowed together very nicely.
It would make my initials RAW, the same as one of my brothers (have a decent amount of respect towards his intelligence), though also my dad (now a fan of him)

The last test had to be if it could stand up to the Meaning Test. Aka do i like the meaning of the name. Ryan was the only name I choose that I didn't know the meaning of first, usually that is the first thing I look up first.
Ryan = Little King
Alexander = Defender of Man

So far it is the name I have stuck with the longest.

I don't hate my female name, and might end up missing it a bit, but I do want to try moving on from it a bit. At least it a gender neutral name though it gets used wit females more (it is Stacy)

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If you have a name you are already calling/thinking this character by then it will be hard to separate it from him. My advice would be to find a name that is similar in spelling and/or pronunciation