Deciding my new name

[Justine]

I am not entirely sure what I want my feminine name to be just yet. Right now I have it as Justine simple because that's my male name feminized.

For starters, I think I would like to keep the initials I was born under, but just change their meaning. My initials are JWB. So, I was think Jennifer Whitney Bell as my new name. But, for my first name, I like the names Jennifer, and Sarah.

So, I guess I would just like some help or adive on deciding what new name I should/could give myself.

[Carolynn]

You have the distinctive advantage of being able to select your name rather than being limited by one selected by your parents. Be creative!! Live a little!! I didn't and selected the name I was born with when I transitioned, and kinda regret not being more creative now.

That's life!!! (How much does it cost? fifteen cents. I only have a dime. That's Life!). An old routine when magazines were cheap by today's standards.

[Melinda Welsh]

Justine , only you can decide on a name you can live with. Or it may be given to you by luck . Mine was given to me by luck , and a landlords misunderstanding. But that's another story.
As you like Jennifer I guess you are just looking for the W and B , if bell isn't your name. Good luck.

[DonnaT]

1) Jennifer Whitney Bell; or

2) Sarah Whitney Bell

Which sounds better to you?

[Paula G]

Winnona, Winifred, (My aunt was a Winnie)... not that many Ws to choose from. While we have a distinct advantage in being able to choose our names, it can be very difficult, I struggled with all sorts of exotic, pretty and unusual names, (Jasmin, Jade, Emerald etc.) but settled for something more suitable for everyday use.

[Anna]

Justine, this site may be useful to you...

http://www.behindthename.com/

[Davita]

Yeppers Justine, a name.... we all have one. We are lucky we can pick our own; we are unlucky in that we can pick our own.

This is what I went through for my name (and it has a couple links that helped me). See http://davita-farley.webs.com/how_to/howname.html hint hint... I was partial to the Kabalarian folks linked on my page.

Take your time; the name you decide on will just fit you and you will know it. If you decide and it's not quite right... that's okay. It's still going to be better than "hey you!" and you can always try another.

[Arielle Enid]

I searched for a list of female names from A-Z and stumbled across a neat little site that listed a handful of A-Z names in Australia (can't seem to find the exact one I stumbled across, anyways thought it would be neat to utilize names from another country) along with their meanings. I played around until I got one that I felt was descriptive of myself en femme while still being fairly unique. Quite the experience.

[Kiera]

definetely play around with names for a while even wen you do choose,sounds mad,but ask yourself questions to yourself using your new name(but make sure no one is around lol)...you could even choose from mythology if you like greek names etc,norweigan myth for example, freya,or irish mythology eg,deidre,maeve,have fun but make sure you feel comfortable with it...

[JoAnnDallas]

What I did was ask my mother what she picked for names before I was born. Back then couples would pick both a male and female name for the new baby.

[Drea Lynn Stewart]

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure where I got the entirety of my name.

Drea is short for "Andrea", which is Greek for "manly" I picked Lynn just because I liked it. And Stewart because I have a Scottish lastname (not a particularly common one) but didn't want to use that, so I went with a rather common Scottish lastname in it's place.

I was dressing for quite a while before I thought about a femme name - it wasn't until I started thinking about joining a forum that I actually picked it; now, I can barely remember it not being part of me.

Hugs,
Drea

[JoAnnDallas]

Same here for name. It was not until 2005, that I started thinking about a name. That was when I first started going out publicly en fem. I know of girls that change their name almost weekly. I figure that if your going to have a name then it should be a name that fits you and your compy using. Before I was born, my parents picked out Josephine Annette, which I shorten to JoAnn.

[Belinda]

I think I chose the name Belinda in honour of a girl of the same name who worked in my office when I was about 23. She was always glammed up in heels and tights in all different colours. Before that I had a brief flirtation with the name Sharon, when I started experimenting with my Mums dresses at the age of 20. I created the persona of a 20 year old girl called Sharon Webster.

Other names I have toyed with include Nicola, Andrea and Denise, but I think I will stick to Belinda, if I had been born a girl I would have been honoured to have been given that name. Its classy and so feminine.

When I joined here it was lovely to be addressed by my fem name, its so liberating.

[Kimberly Kael]

Naming can be as simple or complicated as you feel like making it. I chose the name Kimberly with very little forethought and learned a lot in the process. When the time came to change my legal name I put all that experience to good use.

Things I considered beyond merely liking the name myself included:

• Social security records regarding the popularity of the name, both for the year I was born and this year.

• Liking the rhythm of my name, both first and last and first, middle, last.

• Feedback from the people I'm closest to, my wife in particular. Does the name suit me? Can they imagine using it?

• Family connections. Do the various parts of my name have ties to my maternal and paternal families?

• Similarity. I didn't keep the same first initial as the name I was given at birth, but they do have some common characteristics.

• Nicknames. The longer a name is, the more compelled people will feel to abbreviate it. It turns out I'm not very fond of "Kim", so I knew I'd have to pick a name that I liked both long and short versions of.

• Unambiguous femininity was important to me, so names that could be given to boys and girls were right out.

• Letter shapes that made for an attractive signature.

[Tina]

My wife picked my name. At first she would call me Sluttina. As my crossdressing would end up with us having sex. But now that I'm in fem mode all the time at home and out in the yard. It was shorted to Tina.

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