| Slightly uncommon perspective: As a trans woman I recently had to pick a new first name. I think my previous first name was well chosen by my parents. It was a name that was more common in the generation before me. That meant everyone knew the name, I didn't get asked how to spell it and no one looked confused when I said it, but also I was always the only Y in the room. I have literally never met another Y my age in my life. I didn't actually spend a very long time picking a new name. I wanted one that fitted a few pretty precise criteria and there wasn't many left to choose from. It has however ended up that my new name is quite common for women my age. Last weekend I was at a party and there were 3 other Ys out of 20 people. I've thought about the change from a well known but rare name, to a well known and common name quite a lot. I have noticed that often trans people go one of two ways; pick a super common name because they want to fit in with their peers as much as possible, or they choose a really super unique name as as way of expressing themselves. Being called my new name is still relatively new to me (coming up to one year full time, three part time). I still am alerted a lot more by people saying my old name than my new one. I wonder if this will ever change as the only time I hear my old name now is when talking about my past, which means that label is still exclusively for me. Whereas I hear my new name being used to refer to loads of different people all the time. Lots of my friends have said they find it odd to think what name they would pick if they were to pick one of the opposite gender. Interesting anyway :-) |